ISF 465 
ICopy 1 




I G E O N 

Jl % J\ 1 O 1 1 1 \jl 

by ALICE MacLeod 





Class JiEAii- 
Book i_tA_^ 



(x)pightN^_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



PIGEON RAISING 



Pigeon Raising 



BY 



ALICE MACLEOD 



Illustrated 



HANDBOOKS 



Number 35 




NEW YORK 

OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 

MCMXIII 



M«>y>i> fT^ap h 






Copyright, 1913, by 
OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY 



All rights reserved 



©CI.A3345 96 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Novice and His Mistakes 9 
11. How I Should Build a Pigeon 

Plant 21 

III. Costs and Profits .... 35 

IV. The Various Breeds and Their 

Markings 49 

V. The Nature and Habits of 

High-Bred Pigeons ... 67 

VI. Breeding 81 

VII. Disease and Feeding ... 95 
VIII. Marketing, Killing, and Cur- 
ing Feathers . . . . 105 



THE NOVICE AND HIS 
MISTAKES 



PIGEON RAISING 

CHAPTER I 

THE NOVICE AND HIS MISTAKES 

THE work of raising pigeons Is light 
and interesting, the profits large and 
steady, but it is a business that must 
be brought to a scientific basis from the very 
start and it embraces many branches of very 
practical knowledge. Few people who go into 
pigeon raising take the trouble to understand 
this or to study the nature of pigeons on whom 
they are entirely dependent for success in the 
enterprise. Pigeons by nature are as delicate 
and refined as the most sensitive human beings 
and it requires knowledge and skill to handle 
them profitably. The pigeon raiser to be suc- 
cessful financially must center his interests on 
the welfare of his subjects, who are entirely 
dependent on him for everything, or cut loose 
ttis wire netting and let them shift for them- 
selves. 

Not every person is fitted for raising pigeons. 
A person of very sensitive feelings should not 
engage in the business. In gathering up the 

9 



10 PIGEON RAISING 

squabs for market, they will cling confidingly to 
you and gaze at you with frightened eyes of 
reproach from their baskets as they are driven 
away by the expressman, for they are as near 
human beings as it is possible for fowls to be. 
I have known strong men to give up the busi- 
ness on account of this, but as such things must 
be, I will endeavor to do good from a humane 
view, by devoting an entire chapter to explain- 
ing the nature and habits of pigeons. 

Princes, poets, prelates, judges, and ladies of 
high degree have been in the ranks of the 
pigeon fancier during ages past, for " pigeon 
fancy " antedates the Christian era, and we 
have record that they took " keen pleasure in 
their pigeon lofts and the company of their 
birds." 

The results these great people accomplished 
appear marvelous when we examine the various 
breeds that have sprung, as Darwin assures us, 
from the parent stock of the rock-pigeon, or 
wild pigeon, of Europe and North Africa. It 
was love for their birds that enabled them to 
accomplish these results, that gave them the 
patience to persevere through discouragements. 
Gentleness, kindness, and patience are the first 
requisites for the pigeon raiser to possess, 
coupled with a clear, methodical business head, 



THE NOVICE 11 

if he expects to build his own plant; if he can 
afford to hire an expert to start it, it is simple 
enough to run it afterwards. 

No one can be in the business for any length 
of time without improving and broadening his 
nature. To be successful the pigeon raiser must 
study his flock by spending hours, at first, quietly 
observing them in all their phases until he gets 
to know them, and they become familiar with 
him; and through this, unconsciously, his nature 
becomes gentler and kinder. This is not only 
my experience, but it is that of the most noted 
experts for centuries past. 

Bearing these things in mind, the novice 
should be cautious how he plunges into the 
business without due consideration. He should 
bury his suspicions and listen to counsel, and 
never depend on his own wisdom until he has 
experience at the back of it. I have never found 
that men in the business gave wrong advice, but, 
on the contrary, they were willing to talk intel- 
ligently and profitably as long as I was willing 
to listen. 

If a man makes a business of selling pigeons 
it is to his interest to start his customer right in 
order to sell him more; and if the novice buys 
young stock it is impossible to be cheated on 
the score of worn-out birds. 



12 PIGEON RAISING 

Many of the failures of the novice are en- 
tirely due to the neglect of some small point 
which he thought he could carry out independ- 
ent of the counsel of the wise; as, for instance, 
a lady I know built exceedingly well, but she 
faced her houses to the north. With the stock, 
which she imported from the East, she certainly 
spent $3,000, and she systematically lost it be- 
cause her birds never got the sun. They were 
confined in cold, dreary houses and fly-pens. 
Then, she was sure the Eastern bird was a good 
market squab for the West, although every 
pigeon raiser she consulted advised her to the 
contrary. She was sure it was because they 
had stock for sale. 

A Frenchman comes along and wishes to buy 
stock, but it must be cheap. Without any expe- 
rience whatever, he builds according to his own 
ideas and crowds his pens with an ill-assorted 
lot of birds at $2.00 a dozen; in a few months 
he is sold out at auction. 

Another customer chooses a locality because 
of its beauty and climate, but, in spite of re- 
peated warnings, miles away from the g^ram 
dealer. In just one year the six hundred mag- 
nificent birds, which I had sold to him and which 
I had found so profitable, were disposed of at 
a disgustingly low figure to be shot for sport. 



THE NOVICE 13 

Therefore, with these and many similar in- 
stances in my mind, I would suggest to the 
novice that if he wishes to build a successful 
pigeon plant he should strictly adhere to eight 
fundamental rules: 

1. Select a good neighborhood — know that 
the neighbors are honest — and that there is a 
plentiful supply of water. 

2. The pigeon houses and pens must face the 
south — pigeons love sunshine and running 
water. 

3. The pigeon raiser should have a deed to 
his place, as pigeons cannot be moved without 
heavy loss. 

4. Wholesale grain dealers should be within 
easy reach, for grain must be bought by tons. 
And it is also necessary to be within the pre- 
cincts of express delivery. 

5. There must be quick transportation to 
market — within, at least, a few hours, unless 
the birds are to be dressed and refrigerated. 

6. The pigeon houses and nests must be large 
and roomy and the latter numerous, but the fly- 
pens should be small. 

7. The feed must be varied — with some of 
the cheapest kind before the birds all the time. 

8. In buying stock, buy only youngsters. Se- 
lect the breed that the prospective market de- 



14 PIGEON RAISING 

mands — buy at least 200 or 300 for the market 
pen and four or five dozen for the parent stock. 

Unless the intending pigeon raiser has suffi- 
cient means to follow out these rules, I would 
not advise him to go into the squab raising busi- 
ness. It does not pay to go into it on a smaller 
scale, for the steady income comes from regular 
shipments, and the income must be steady to 
counterbalance the regular output for grain. 

A first-class, systematized, and well-cared-for 
pigeon plant should double its original stock 
every six to eight weeks. That is, if the pigeon 
raiser has 300 breeders he should count on hav- 
ing close on to 300 squabs during six or eight 
weeks to sell or raise, as he chooses. But, of 
course, he must give his pigeons the proper con- 
ditions, as it is an acknowledged fact that laying 
and hatching are purely optional with the 
pigeon. To quote a noted pigeon raiser, "The 
process of laying an egg is a mental operation. 
The female pigeon forms the egg in her body 
and lays it when she wants to, not when she is 
forced to. In other words, she lays when con- 
ditions are satisfactory to her." 

I was once a novice myself, but I loved birds 
and I was eager to study and and gain all the 
knowledge I could for their welfare. 

When I took possession of my place, a coun- 



THE NOVICE 15 

try-town lot of loox 150 feet, facing the south, 
there was a mixed flock of 1,100 pigeons of va- 
rious breeds; thoroughbred to start In with, but 
allowed to cross-breed among themselves. They 
were In one narrow house built the full width 
of the lot (100 feet), against a high board 
fence, with one fly-pen the same length and forty 
feet wide. 

There were no squabs in the nests, and I was 
told it was because it was the moulting season. 
This Is not true; a well-fed, well-housed pigeon 
will breed the year round. These pigeons had 
had nothing but wheat, wheat, wheat — and 
white wheat at that — from one day's end to an- 
other, dumped into large, old-fashioned feeders, 
allowed to get sour and filthy In damp weather. 

There was a shed on the east end of the yard 
and I built a corresponding one on the west, fill- 
ing both with modern nests. Then I built a 
thoroughbred pen. As there were no squabs to 
disturb, and as I had decided to confine my 
plant to two breeds and their crosses, I caught 
up all the thoroughbreds and sold off all but 
the runts and homers, which were compara- 
tively few. 

As, even then, I felt chary about the homer 
for the Western market, I bought in a few Mal- 
tese hens and more runts, and no runt-hen 



16 PIGEON RAISING 

crosses. These latter I turned in the main pen 
and allowed them to mate with the others as 
they chose. 

While this was going on I built a small bach- 
elor pen for odd males, and as soon as the pairs 
were nesting I caught up the bachelors and shut 
them securely in their pen until I could sell them 
or get mates for them, for a bachelor pigeon is 
a great mischief maker, entering the small 
households and pecking little squabs to death. 

With the change of feed, which I varied 
from day to day, all was activity in the pigeon 
villages. Such billing and cooing and nest mak- 
ing! And right here I should like to say to 
those who advocate nest cleaning, I had to fill 
the new nests with pigeon manure before they 
would take them. They crowded in and fought 
for the old ones. The foundation of a nest 
should be manure — they will put clean straws 
on top — it keeps the squabs warm and free from 
vermin. No vermin can live in pigeon manure, 
as it is strong with ammonia. 

There had been no marketing from this place. 
The original 700 thoroughbreds and crosses 
had been turned into the large pen to increase 
to thousands without system or discretion, with 
the result that they only Increased 400 in a year. 
This, I am confident, was due to the feeding. 



THE NOVICE 17 

Like human beings, pigeons must have variety. 
Besides, white wheat c'kuses dysentery among 
squabs, and nothing discourages pigeons from 
breeding so much as seeing their young die. 

One of the hardest things for the pigeon 
raiser to contend with is rats. The grain at- 
tracts them; then they get a taste of squab; and 
then they will kill the old pigeons; and, finally, 
they will become so bold that they will come out 
in daytime, in the very presence of the proprie- 
tor, and kill pigeons and squabs as they sit on 
the nests. 

They had reached the squab stage with me, 
to the extent of my losing fifty dollars' worth, 
when a pigeon fancier happening to come to my 
place suggested cats, and explained that there 
was a difference in cats: some cats wouldn't 
touch rats. He knew of some ratter cats and 
would send me three young ones — females were 
the best; and I must make them comfortable in 
the pigeon yard and pay as much attention to 
feeding them as I did the pigeons — fish one 
day, liver another, cooked meat, soup, milk, and 
vegetables, if they liked them. 

It was the rainy season, so early next morn- 
ing I set a man to work building a comfortable 
cat-house in the pigeon yard — one that would 
not leak. The cats arrived in the afternoon. 



18 PIGEON RAISING 

They were about six months old; two were tor- 
toise-shell and one black and white. They 
snuffed about for a while, then, as it was rain- 
ing, settled themselves comfortably in their 
house. 

The ground beneath the feeders was honey- 
combed with rat-holes. Next morning dead 
rats were lying about the yard, and not a squab 
was missing, nor did I ever see another rat on 
the place. 

After a few days I let the cats out during 
the day to run about as they chose and catch 
gophers in the alfalfa patch and mice in the 
barn. At night they cried to go into the pigeon 
yard. 

My cats became so famous and numerous 
that with every lot of breeders I sold I threw 
in a cat. If it was a short journey, I placed the 
cat In the same box with the pigeons. 



HOW I SHOULD BUILD A 
PIGEON PLANT 



CHAPTER II 

HOW I SHOULD BUILD A PIGEON PLANT 

AS I have stated before, my houses were 
narrow sheds with nests ranging the full 
length on either side, where there were 
no windows or doors. This is an extravagant 
use of space. Nests built in tiers across the 
width of the house are by far more economical 
and, at the same time, this arrangement protects 
the pigeons from draughts; yet the house may 
be built open, if the climate admits. 

My meaning can be understood by the accom- 
panying diagram. Had I rebuilt on my place, 
this is the plan I should have adopted. 

For a mild climate build the houses sixteen 
feet wide with four feet of this used as a pass- 
age-way in the front, leaving twelve feet for 
tiers of nests. These tiers should be nearly a 
foot and a half wide, making eight tiers to the 
twelve feet, and five feet and five inches, or five 
nests, each a foot high. 

The material of these nests should be one 
inch rough lumber. The flooring of the nests 

21 



22 



PIGEON RAISING 



Y. Holjses 

^ /et Cms res 
. ± JL ± ^ 



//c 



7'X/£ • 






Oi 






FLrPe/v 



fir FkN 



^O^i%6S 









Barn 

ze^rs^• 



SAfifv y^AfiO 



&A*o' Patch J 



•^1 



7Z'X'*Z' 




LAYOUT FOR PIGEON PLANT 
Size of Lot — IOC ft. x 150 ft. 
Dotted lines=foot board 12 inches high 
House i.=Odd Pigeons 

2.=Youngster Crosses 

3.=Nursery Maids— Thoroughbred Youngsters 

4.=English Runt 

5.=Maltese Hen 



HOW I SHOULD BUILD 23 

should be I X i8, likewise, every other partition. 
The other partitions should be i x 14, thus leav- 
ing a connecting passage-way of four inches at 
the rear between every two nests. For every 
pair of pigeons two nests must be provided and 
fifteen or twenty extra for every fifty pairs. 
This is one of the authoritative rules for profit- 
able pigeon raising. By having a rear passage- 
way between the two nests, the squabs can slip 
from one nest to the other if there is any fight- 
ing going on. And there is also no likelihood 
of their tumbling off the nest, as they can indulge 
the spirit of adventure by climbing from one 
nest to the other. 

So the partitions of the nests would be even 
with the flooring in the front. Now take half- 
inch boards four inches wide and saw them into 
17-inch lengths; then nail slides on each side 
of the partitions five inches from the front 
and slip these 17-inch lengths into place to 
hold the nests in position. This gives each nest 
a front platform of five inches for the pigeons 
to stand on while feeding their squabs and a 
comfortable place for the male to roost when he 
is on guard at night. 

First build the house strong and durable — it 
may be only a shed in appearance but it must 
be strong — sixteen feet wide. Then set up 



24 



PIGEON RAISING 



partitions, extending from the floor to the roof, 
twelve feet long, seven feet apart and on each 
side, and against the outside walls, set the tiers 
of nests. I advise using inch lumber for the nests 
as you must build strong and lasting. A pair 
of heavy pigeons, a pair of heavy squabs, and 
heavy manure caked nests soon tell on thin lum- 
ber and a breakdown is often disastrous; some- 
times quite as expensive as the extra half-inch 
in lumber would have been. 

By following this plan you find you have two 
rows of tiers of nests facing each other with a 
space of four feet between. This is ample to 
pass in and out with a wheelbarrow for cleaning, 
thus making cosy little apartment houses. 



1 I M U 



f^ 



•«3lf^ 



,//V" 




/Z/ 



DETAIL OF NEST AND HOUSE 

Scale 14" = i' 

Detail shows only one floor of nesta, there being five 
floors. 



HOW I SHOULD BUILD 25 

Against the back wall of each of these little 
apartment houses, place a feeder for steady 
feed and a drinking fountain, such as are used 
for chickens. 

Each apartment house will contain eighty 
nests, or forty pairs of nests, In which thirty- 
four pairs of pigeons can be comfortably ac- 
commodated. The front part of the house Is 
left entirely open. The roof slants on each side 
from the ridge pole, being eight and one-half 
feet from the ground In the center, and slop- 
ing to a height of six feet on each side, Including 
a projection of at least three or four Inches be- 
yond the house. The back, or north wall, should 
be made as nearly weather-proof as possible. 

The four foot passage-way In the front of the 
house should connect with the barn so as to 
make It convenient to go back and forth In 
stormy weather. The roof sloping over this 
passage-way is supported by uprights — either 
2x4, or 4 X 4 — with a foot-board 1x12, or set 
in a curbing of concrete. Either way it Is well 
to have a shallow ditch of concrete to catch the 
shed from the roof and carry It to the drainage 
for the alfalfa patch. 

The floors may be dirt, boards, or concrete. 
I had dirt floors which I found very satisfactory 
and, of course, cheap. Boards are also good 



26 PIGEON RAISING 

and easily kept clean. If boards are used, it is 
best to raise the floor at least half a foot from 
the ground. I have heard pigeon raisers say- 
that concrete floors are hard on the pigeon's 
feet. 

THE FLY-PEN 

Make a strong frame of 2 x 4 uprights 8 
feet high (if the house is set flat on the ground 
without flooring) with 1x2 cross pieces and 
foot-board of 1x12 for the fly-pens, and cover 
the whole with one inch wire netting. I say 
one inch because flocks of small birds enter 
through two inch wire netting and, in a few 
years, eat up enough feed to pay for the whole 
plant. The partitions between the fly-pens, how- 
ever, may be two-inch. Join the selvage of 
the netting by weaving them together with 
pliable wire. Fasten the netting to the south 
slope of the roof of the house, half a foot from 
the ridge-pole. This gives the pigeons a gently 
sloping roof to parade up and down on in the 
sun, which they dearly love to do. 

The government experimented for years to 
get a preservative for rough lumber that would 
withstand the hot suns and heavy storms of 
Arizona and California, and yet be inexpens- 



HOW I SHOULD BUILD 27 

ive. A mixture of crude oil and princess brown 
was the result. I put it to a five year's test and 
found it possessed all the qualities that were 
claimed for it. The strong suns and winter 
storms of California soften exposed lumber, 
even though it be white-washed several times, so 
much that in a few years it will not hold nails. 

Crude oil is extremely cheap — I paid twenty- 
five cents for five gallons — likewise the princess 
brown. It is very disagreeable stuff to handle 
and it is sometimes difficult to get a man to use 
it; but its effect is so permanent that, I have 
heard, it does not have to be applied a second 
time. 

Therefore, go carefully over the houses, in- 
cluding roofs and nests, and the framework of 
the flypens with this mixture and allow all to 
dry thoroughly before putting to use. It takes 
time to do it thoroughly, but it is worth while 
doing well. It is not only a thorough preserva- 
tive, but is healthful and no vermin can exist in 
it; besides being of so somber a color that it is 
restful to the eyes In a land of glaring sunshine. 

There seems to be no rule for mixing. I 
merely stirred the princess brown (which Is a 
powder) Into the crude oil until It took on a 
suitable color. Lumber thus treated has still 
kept Its strength and retained Its color at the 



28 PIGEON RAISING 

end of five years, while that which had been 
whitewashed or had not been treated at all was 
so soft that it could scarcely hold the nails. 

When the nests are ready, throw into each a 
handful of alfalfa, twigs or tobacco stems, and 
mash it down in the center, then scatter pigeon 
manure on the top. This gives them courage 
and they will bring more material and make it 
to suit themselves. Never give them nesting 
material that is hollow, such as straw, as vermin 
can hide in it. Alfalfa is solid and cheapest, 
even if it has to be bought by the bale. If the 
pigeon raiser has no alfalfa patch, he can buy a 
bale of the hay and get the man that delivers 
it to bring a hay-knife and cut it into three equal 
parts crosswise of the bale. This will be the 
right length for nest building. Place the bale 
on sacks to catch all the dried leaves, which the 
pigeons are very fond of. 

MIXING CONCRETE 

All building and mixing of concrete on my 
place I personally superintended. I asked for 
a man, who understood carpentering, from the 
Associated Charities, and with his help figured 
on the lumber required and mixed the concrete. 
I paid him $1.50 a day. 



HOW I SHOULD BUILD 29 

Laying concrete is fascinating work. In lin- 
ing bath tanks it is best to drive short wire nails 
or tacks into the sides to reinforce or hold up 
the sides of the lining. Although I have had 
concrete stick firmly to water-logged rough lum- 
ber, I think it safer to reinforce. In mixing con- 
crete for lining, I should advise five parts sand 
to one part cement, mixing thoroughly first, then 
adding sufficient water to make a smooth paste. 
After it begins to set, sprinkle with water. I 
let mine stand ten or fourteen days before put- 
ting it to use, sprinkling it daily; if the weather 
was hot, several times a day. 

Pigeons are great splashers and the ground 
for a foot or two surrounding the tanks soon 
becomes deep mud unless concrete floorings are 
put beneath the tanks. I set my tanks on four 
2x4 uprights, with a two-inch slant toward the 
drain ditch; the faucet being at the highest end. 
The uprights were long enough to bring the tank 
up pretty close to the mouth of the faucet and 
were sunk six inches in the ground. Set the 
tank on the' uprights and bore a hole for a 
plug directly over the mouth of the drain ditch 
before lining with cement. Dig out the ground 
beneath, for at least a foot surrounding the 
tank, four inches deep. Put in a two-inch layer 
of coarse gravel and cover with a thin layer 



30 PIGEON RAISING 

of five-to-one cement. Let this stand forty- 
eight hours, then fill up with two-to-one cement 
and you will have a most satisfactory an up-to- 
date pavement. 

In my market stock pen, which carried as 
many as i,ooo pigeons at one time, I had two 
tanks 2x4 feet, and four inches deep, but the 
water was constantly running. 

My drain pipes were built of rough lumber 
sunk in the ground on a gradual Incline. As 
they were not water-tight they leaked gallons 
of water that might have been used advanta- 
geously for Irrigation. For a first-class pigeon 
plant I should build them of concrete, or use 
terra cotta piping, whichever happens to be the 
cheapest. 

Make the alfalfa patch gently sloping and 
have the drain pipes come in at different places 
at the top. This gives irrigation and fertiliza- 
tion at the same time, for there Is always ma- 
nure in the bath tanks. These tanks must be 
thoroughly cleansed and allowed to refill each 
day. Although I did this faithfully every day 
there always appeared a green scum that an- 
noyed me exceedingly, until a kind old farmer 
told me to put two or three large pebbles In 
each tank. This kept the water clear as crys- 
tal. 



HOW I SHOULD BUILD 31 

THE PIGEON-NET 

One of the necessary implements of the 
pigeon plant is a net for catching pigeons. 
Take a stout broom-handle to a blacksmith and 
get him to weld a thick iron hoop eighteen 
inches in diameter and fit it into the handle. 
Many people sew strong netting to this, but I 
found netting injured the pigeons' wings and 
two flour sacks sewed together and gathered at 
the bottom was much better. The pigeon raiser 
soon becomes very expert in catching pigeons 
on the fly. 



COSTS AND PROFITS 



CHAPTER III 

COSTS AND PROFITS 

THE home instinct is the thing that dis- 
turbs the pigeon; one may take young 
birds to any climate and with ordinarily 
comfortable houses they will suit themselves to 
the weather. Build according to the climate; 
if close houses are required for other fowls, 
build close houses for the pigeons, with win- 
dows that can be closed, but never have the 
nests face an opening of any kind. The plan 
illustrated in Chapter II has been adapted to 
a cold climate by closing the front, moving the 
tiers of nests to the front, with a window be- 
tween, and making the four-foot passageway 
at the rear. This passage is divided from the 
tiers of nests by a wire-netting partition, in 
which is a wire door between the tiers, oppo- 
site the window, with the feed and water by 
the side. In this passage was placed an air- 
tight stove for heating in cold weather. There 
were also sufficient windows in the north or 
outer wall for light and ventilation, besides a 

35 



36 PIGEON RAISING 

four-light window In each gable near the peak 
and three covered ventilators In the roof. 

The windows In the front or south wall were 
opened each morning sufficiently to allow the 
pigeons to pass Into the fly-pen, and the man 
whose building It was told me they would 
break the Ice In the bath tank, If It was not too 
thick. In order to take a bath. Climate has 
no effect on them If they have a comfortable 
home. Such a house was built at an approxi- 
mate cost of $3 to $5 a running foot. This Is 
complete with flying-pens and all Inside fittings. 
He set the tiers of nests wider apart than those 
In my plan, which left a space of four feet. 
His had a space of five feet, so there should 
be ample room for a two-foot and thirty-Inch 
door Into the passage, leaving two feet and six 
Inches for the feeder and drinking fountain. 

He set the house a foot from the ground 
and made the floor double of fitted boards 
interlined with building paper. The outer 
walls were also of fitted boards covered with 
building paper and then clapboarded. The 
roof was strongly shingled and the whole build- 
ing had applied to the inside a thick coat of 
crude oil and princess brown. He built a house 
fifty-one feet long, which he divided into six 
sections, with five fly-pens and a single passage- 



COSTS AND PROFITS 37 

way at the rear and the sixth section for a 
grain and store room. At first he tried with- 
out heat, and although the birds themselves 
did well they did not breed as frequently as 
when the chill was taken off the house; the 
second winter he put In hot water pipes, which 
heated more evenly than the air-tight stove. 
This fifty-one foot house, which housed 340 
birds, or 170 pairs, when completed with all 
the fittings and two coats of paint on the out- 
side cost $250. 

If homer pigeons are selected for stock, 
cheap boxes may be used for nests by piling 
them up against the partitions, but the larger 
breeds and their crosses must have large, 
roomy nests or they will breed but a few times 
a year. 

The huge pigeon plant of Los Angeles has 
nothing but boxes nailed up against posts and 
piled up one on top of another and against 
each other under crude sheds, sometimes with 
no shed at all. But It is situated in a land of 
sunshine and little rain; In spite of these advan- 
tages, the statistics show that he does not re- 
ceive the full value of his birds. 

An old outhouse may frequently be reno- 
vated Into a habitable pigeon house at little 
cost; the main points to be borne in mind are 



38 PIGEON RAISING 

whatever Is built must be built permanently — 
time and money are both lost when mated pairs 
are moved about — and face pigeon houses for 
a sunny exposure. 

With a closed house, such as I have just 
described, all windows should be covered with 
wire netting on the outside to prevent the escape 
of the birds in case they get into the passage, 
and all the windows should slide so they can 
be opened to any extent desired. All doors, 
both inside and outside, should be hung on 
spring hinges. In very cold climates the birds 
may be allowed to pass from the house to the 
fly through an opening in each section, five 
inches wide and six Inches high, and rounded 
at the top, with a lighting board six inches wide 
In either side. Slides are arranged to close 
these openings when It is desired to confine the 
birds temporarily, in either fly-pen or house, 
for the purpose of catching any one, or in 
severe weather. 

Perches may be added to the fly-pen by nail- 
ing brackets to the posts four feet from the 
ground and boards four inches wide are nailed 
to them to furnish the pigeons a place to alight 
and walk when not In flight. The window in 
each section for the pigeons to fly through must 
be closely covered on the Inside with wire net- 



COSTS AND PROFITS 39 

ting, otherwise they will attempt to fly through 
the glass and thereby injure themselves. 

In starting a pigeon plant a person may 
spend any amount of money he chooses, both 
in stock and houses. It depends entirely on 
the size and climate for the latter, and how 
anxious the breeder is to dispose of his stock 
for the former. I once sold a flock of seventy 
five-months-old birds for ninety dollars because 
the rainy season was coming on and I had no 
time to attend properly to their housing; other- 
wise they would have been worth triple that 
amount to have kept them, because most of 
them were thoroughbreds. If one is on the 
lookout many good bargains in young birds 
can be gotten from overstocked pigeon lofts in 
the fall. Three-months-old pigeons of good 
breeding (first crosses) usually sell at from 
eight to twelve dollars per dozen. A man once 
stocked his plant by buying the entire output 
of squabs from my breeders' (first crosses) pen 
for six months at five dollars per dozen. I 
merely guaranteed to send him healthy, sound 
squabs that could feed themselves. They 
ranged from six to eight weeks old. He also 
took three dozen thoroughbreds at ten dollars 
per dozen. It was in the spring, and he was 
extremely successful In raising them. 



40 PIGEON RAISING 

The prices of fancy-bred mated stock for- 
merly ranged from five dollars to two hundred 
and fifty a pair, the latter price being that of 
prize birds, which has even gone as high as 
$ 1 ,000 ; now, however, fine birds may be bought 
at from four to fifteen dollars a pair. If a 
person wishes to invest a large sum in a plant 
and does not understand the business himself, 
he should obtain the services of a well-recom- 
mended expert to build the plant and get it In 
good, systematic running order. Such a one 
can be obtained for $100 a month and ex- 
penses, but he is well worth the money, for 
after a plant is well established it is a simple 
matter to run it. It is in the beginning that 
many details which appear of minor consid- 
eration to the novice become fatal mistakes if 
neglected and much good money has been lost 
through their neglect. 

Barring mistakes, fire, thieves, and floods, 
there is no such thing as luck with pigeons. 
With the proper start these industrious, intel- 
ligent little workers merrily perform their part, 
if the breeder does his by giving them the 
proper food unstintingly. Scant or improper 
food and cleaning of the nests make empty 
nests. 

The best known market in the United States 



COSTS AND PROFITS 41 

is said to be New York. Prices quoted In the 
newspapers are not to be relied on; the only 
reliable source is to write to several retail mar- 
kets and Inquire prices they are willing to pay 
for first-class squabs. The Western market is 
steadily rising, but at no time has It gone to 
the height of the New York market, although 
squab raisers are meeting the demand for a 
much larger squab than is produced for the 
New York market. 

My squabs weighed twenty-seven pounds to 
the dozen and a half, compared to eight to 
ten pounds to the dozen of the homer, the 
Eastern standard market squab, yet che highest 
price I ever received from the market was 
$4.50. The demand for my squabs was unlim- 
ited, yet the price never reached to a great 
height. Whereas in New York the price leaps 
to six and seven dollars per dozen. 

Taking a mixed flock, as I did, it took me a 
year to get it Into shape, although after a 
month or two It began to pay expenses. The 
price of grain fluctuates so much that it is Im- 
possible to set a standard of expenses, but when 
my birds began to pay dividends, despite the 
fluctuating prices of grain and market prices of 
squabs, they invariably evened up at the end of 
the year. That is, when I paid fifty dollars a 



42 PIGEON RAISING 

month for feed I took in a hundred a month 
from the market squabs. The market squabs 
always paid for the maintenance of the breed- 
ers and thoroughbreds, so that what I sold 
from those two pens was clear gain, besides 
those I reared for renewing and increasing 
stock. 

On account of ill-conditioned houses I re- 
duced my flock from i,ioo to 750, and then 
the expenses averaged $50 a month and the 
600 market birds averaged $100 a month gross 
receipts; the 150 breeding stock and thorough- 
bred stock from $10 to $30 a month — some- 
times more, sometimes less. Each bird of the 
market stock brought in an average of $2.00 
a year. My birds were all high-class birds, 
held captive, and my plant was situated in a 
mild climate. 

Now comes an estimate of a man near Los 
Angeles with 100,000 birds, which are of no 
particular breed and mostly common, who takes 
in gross receipts of $30,000 per annum. His 
pigeons fly free and what he makes by their 
foraging for some of their food (he feeds 
wheat and screenings three times a day) he 
loses by having some of his birds shot and not 
being able to control his flock, consequently he 
freely admits that he feeds several thousand 



COSTS AND PROFITS 43 

of non-producing birds. It is said that he mar- 
kets 12,000 dozen squabs a year, which, if 
true, is a very small return from 100,000 birds. 
or 50,000 pairs, not being quite three squabs 
a year for each pair. This mammoth pigeon 
plant ships squabs to Los Angeles, Pasadena, 
and as far north as Santa Barbara. He sells 
them dressed, and as his pigeons are all white, 
or nearly so, he must receive a good revenue 
from the feathers, which are easily cured and 
will sell for from forty to sixty cents a pound. 

My birds were picked breeders and nested 
from eight to ten times a year, producing from 
4,500 to 5,000 squabs, which I marketed alive, 
receiving from $2.25 to $4.50 per dozen. 

It Is simply Impossible to count flying 
pigeons. Even the best experts overestimate 
the numbers. I was supposed to have had 
2,000, but when I began to keep strict tally on 
the nesting capacity of the house I discovered 
I had but 1,100; so It may be with this mam- 
moth pigeon ranch, and if they were caught 
up by the dozen it would" be found he had 
just half the number. When there are 500 
birds in motion and as many more peeping 
their heads out of nests, they certainly have 
the appearance of 3,000 or 4,000. 

I paid $700 for my 1,100 birds and the 



44 PIGEON RAISING 

buildings, including fly-pens and feeders, cost 
in the neighborhood of $450, which I consider 
was very poorly expended; but, barring all mis- 
takes and even if the plant, roughly estimated, 
cost $1,200, it was a large interest on the 
money. In fact, I know of very few invest- 
ments that make such large returns on small 
capital, and certainly none that has such light 
and interesting work. 

In breeding for market large numbers only 
are profitable, and if the pigeon raiser selects 
a straight breed for his stock it becomes a diffi- 
cult problem to prevent inbreeding, which he 
would not have to face if his flock was that of 
crosses. In selecting stock, however, the pigeon 
raiser must cater to the demand of the market 
or he loses. The Western market prefers a 
squab large enough to be served in halves, and 
it is foolish for the pigeon raiser to try to raise 
homer stock in the West because it is advocated 
and demanded in the East. The Western res- 
taurateur is willing to pay the marketman forty 
or fifty cents for a bird he can sell in two por- 
tions for eighty cents or a dollar. It is less 
trouble to handle in the dressing and cooking 
and is more pleasing to the eye of the consumer 
than the small squab, but has precisely the same 
delicacy of flavor. This is where so many fail 



COSTS AND PROFITS 45 

in not consulting the taste of the locality in 
which they live. 

There is a pigeon plant of 2,000 homers In 
the vicinity of San Francisco which nets a clear 
profit to the proprietor of $100 a month. He 
employed an expert at $100 a month to go 
over his stock and give him advice. The advice 
was gradually to change his stock. Although 
the expert pointed out that he might be receiv- 
ing $2.25 per dozen a few weeks during the 
summer months and the rest of the year on 
up to $4.50, where he was getting $1.50 most 
of the summer and never higher than $3.00 in 
the winter, he stoutly maintained that it was 
the valued bird of the East and he preferred 
not to risk a new stock. So as he was satisfied 
with the returns, there was nothing more to 
be said, but he might have been receiving at 
least $200 a month. 



THE VARIOUS BREEDS 



CHAPTER IV 

THE VARIOUS BREEDS AND THEIR MARKINGS 

DARWIN divides the pigeon family into 
four grand divisions, but a noted fan- 
cier more simply divides it into three: 
the rock-pigeon, or wild bird; the domesticated, 
duffer, or common pigeon; and the artificial, or 
fancy pigeon. Several hundred varieties of the 
last named class, of which one hundred and 
fifty are named and recognized by fanciers, 
have been produced under domestication, some 
of them differing but little, others to an aston- 
ishing degree, from the wild stock, many really 
being almost monstrous. Yet, no matter how 
far removed in appearance, they all carry the 
same nature, habits, and primal structural points 
of the parent stock. 

The rock-pigeon, or original stock, receives 
its name from inhabiting the rocky sea-coasts 
and neighboring islands of Europe and North 
Africa. It is rarely found inland except when 
in search of food, when it is known to fly fifty 
and seventy-five miles for grain. This, so Dar- 

49 



50 PIGEON RAISING 

win states, Is where the homing pigeon has got- 
ten his power of endurance, fleetness, and the 
wonderful feat of carrying his crop full of food 
undigested through an entire day's flight, the 
operation of digestion being stayed during flight 
in order to feed the young at the nest. 

The rock-pigeon also has a deep love of 
home, a trait that has been carried down 
through centuries of breeding in an unblem- 
ished state to his latest fancy descendant. 

It Is supposed that pigeons were first domes- 
ticated solely for the purpose of supplying the 
table; at least an early record, more than 3,000 
years B. C, signifies their use for that purpose 
by the Egyptians; also In the Bible, Numbers 
11:32, "homers" are spoken of as food for 
the Israelites. 

From this we should conclude that the hom- 
ing variety was the first deviation from the 
parent stock. He certainly comes nearer In ap- 
pearance and Is Invariably used as the staple 
rejuvenator of the other varieties when weak- 
ened by too much Inbreeding. No other species 
of bird has been studied with the same degree 
of care that he has. For centuries this breed 
has been employed In war, In sport, and In many 
scientific experiments. The reason he has been 
so largely used for homing Is due to the fact 



THE VARIOUS BREEDS 51 

that the home Instinct is so strong a character- 
istic that he will travel for hundreds of miles in 
order to reach that beloved spot, one thousand 
miles being the prize distance. Over distances 
they can cover in a few hours they can make a 
speed of fifty to ninety miles an hour. The 
rate of flight for long distances is very low — 
about two and a half days to cover 650 miles, 
although there is a record of 611 miles being 
made in twelve hours. When the maximum 
distance of 1,000 miles Is to be traversed the 
average rate of flight is extremely low; from 
nine to fourteen days Is a splendid record. It 
Is not uncommon for birds to take fifteen, six- 
teen, and twenty days for such a journey. So 
many and severe are the trials sometimes that 
these graceful little creatures have to contend 
with on the journey that some of them return 
from such a distance after months, or even 
years. Only a few of the birds released 1,000 
miles from home ever get back. 

Many and pitiful are the stories told of the 
hardships endured by these little message bear- 
ers who many times meet their death through 
the ignorant curiosity of human beings; as, for 
example, the case of the tired little homer who, 
bearing the last message of the balloonist, An- 
dree, from the Arctic regions, lighting on the 



52 PIGEON RAISING 

mast of a ship and going to sleep with his head 
beneath his wing, was idly shot by the captain 
because he recognized it as a strange bird for 
that latitude. 

A much more humane use of the homing 
pigeon is practiced in China and Spain, where 
they are used in games. A good description of 
those practiced in China can be found in the St. 
Nicholas for February, 1900. 

The homer is always clean-footed and trimly 
built for flight. His feet and legs are red and 
his beak is long and horn colored; these marks 
also come from his early progenitors, the wild 
pigeons of California having yellow legs and 
beak. The homer's head should be well 
shaped; it is said the homer has one-fourth 
more brain-room than the common pigeon. 

The pigeon fancier always looks to the eye 
to determine his breeding; a flattened skull and 
heavy eye-cere show a barb cross. If the eye 
is dark, the head round, and beak short and 
close fitting, there is a preponderance of the 
owl type; but whatever the cross, the result 
will be a persistent and intelligent home-seeker 
that will fly later at night than any other type. 
Another positive point in the homer Is a pro- 
truding eye-ball. The chest should be full and 
broad. The tail of the pigeon acts as the rud- 



THE VARIOUS BREEDS 53 

der in flight and should be of good length. 
This length is increased by pulling out the 
feathers in the first year. This operation is 
also thought to give strength to any young or 
weak bird. 

As homing pigeons circle round several times 
high in the air immediately after being re- 
leased, in order to get their bearings, it is a 
generally accepted theory that they return by 
means of visual landmarks. This is proved by 
the birds being useless in dense fog, such as 
they frequently have in England. 

The homing pigeon is found in black, white, 
red, silver, dun, and cream, but is more gener- 
ally seen in soft blue with strongly marked 
bars or checkers. 

THE RUNT 

The runt, a name given to it in sarcasm, is 
the largest and most robust among pigeons. 
The Roman runt, the oldest of known varie- 
ties, next to the homer, had its origin near the 
shores of the Mediterranean, where it had 
long been classed as poultry. Its main point is 
size, attaining a weight sometimes of nearly 
three pounds and a wing spread of forty-two 
Inches from tip to tip. The runt colors are 



54 PIGEON RAISING 

black, white, red, dun, but are more highly- 
prized in silver or blue. It has a noble, ma- 
jestic dignity combined with perfect proportion 
in outlines, and with none of the grotesqueness 
of the later fancies in pigeons; it stands alone 
with the homer as nearest the parent stock ex- 
cept In size. 

HEN PIGEONS 

From the Roman runt was bred the Leghorn 
runt which, while of equal weight with the Ro- 
man, is peculiar in standing high upon long, 
bare legs, its neck curved like the letter S, and 
Its tail and wings carried high, these peculiari- 
ties winning for it the name of "hen pigeon." 
From this was bred, at Malta, a smaller bird, 
yet carrying all the other points of the Leg- 
horn hen, called the Maltese hen. This Is the 
bird so highly prized by epicures throughout 
the West for crossing with the English runt for 
table use. They come in all colors and splashes. 

There Is another variety of hen that Is called 
Hungarian hen. Their style of carriage Is not 
so exaggerated as that of the Maltese hen. 
They come always beautifully marked in black 
and white, red and white, yellow and white, 
and blue and white. 



THE VARIOUS BREEDS 55 

" Pigeon Fancy " dates back some eighty 
years in this country, and in that time an im- 
mense amount of money has been invested in 
perfecting the fancy and toy breeds which are 
scattered broadcast over the land. Large sums 
have been paid for African owls, pouters, and 
racing homers. 

THE POUTER 

The pouter in appearance is farther away 
from the parent stock (rock pigeon) than any 
of the other varieties, yet by nature he has all 
the characteristics. He is purely a fancy pig- 
eon and easily stands at the head of what 
breeding can accomplish. No bird has been 
bred showing such a divergence from the orig- 
inal type as the pouter, and therefore no bird 
shows the amount of breeding which he does. 
His distinct points are an extraordinary length 
of limb, wonderful crop, great length of 
feather, thin girth, and lightness in hand — no 
highly bred pouter carries much flesh. His 
legs should be closely covered with short, 
soft feathers, which gradually increase in size 
and quill to the toes where they spread upon 
the ground at right angles with the foot. He 
Is gentle In disposition and easily tamed. It Is 



56 PIGEON RAISING 

a comical sight to see a tall, inflated pouter 
bowing and cavorting about a tiny tumbler. 
The pouter has all the straight colors and also 
carries superior markings when crossed with 
white. There is a breed of pigmy pouters that 
has clean legs and feet. The crops of both 
of these varieties should be borne well up when 
Inflated. 

THE FANTAIL 

Next to the pouter the fantail is the most 
extreme modification, or rather embellishment 
of the parent stock, for its tail contains up to 
thirty-six or even forty-two quill feathers in 
place of the twelve originally present. It has 
been highly bred in Scotland, England, and 
America. This breed is seen both plain legged 
and slightly booted. Besides their wonderful 
tails, their chief points are a haughty carriage 
of the head and swanlike bend of the neck. 
They are bred in all solid colors, but are more 
frequently seen In intense blacks and dazzling 
whites. They are peculiar in structure as not 
having the oil-gland. 

THE CARRIER 
Pigeon fanciers resent the confounding of 



THE VARIOUS BREEDS 57 

the homer and carrier pigeon, the latter being 
considered by many of them as the king of 
birds. His name comes from the regal car- 
riage of his head and not from carrying mes- 
sages as many novices suppose. In appearance 
he is totally different frqrn the homing pigeon, 
having a much longer neck, large wattles at 
the base of his beak, and much cere about his 
eyes. In order to have this cere the proper 
whitish bloom, which is one of the most valued 
points of the carrier, and not tinged with pink, 
the fancier keeps his birds secluded from the 
deteriorating influences of sun and outdoor air. 
This is a most unnatural life for a pigeon and 
when followed makes the birds delicate and 
susceptible to disease. Exposure to the at- 
mosphere also shrinks the cere. These points 
take five years at least to mature, though three 
years will determine their character. 

The carrier has long been highly bred in 
England and greatly esteemed there. The colors 
of the carreir are solid black, blue, and white. 
The black by contrast brings out the bloom of 
his wattles to much better effect than the other 
two. 

THE BARB 

Although the barb Is considered to be the 



58 PIGEON RAISING 

original of the carrier, it is a much smaller 
bird and has a short neck, byroad breast, and 
broad flat head; wattles on beak and about the 
eye not so prominent, and more highly colored 
than the carrier; beak shorter. Both these 
breeds are of ancient lineage. The barb was 
perfected in Barbary. The eye wattles ma- 
ture in the third year, and should be of equal 
breadth, the thickest at the outer edge, the eye 
standing out in the center like the hub of a 
wheel. His colors are red, silver, dun, white, 
and black. 

THE JACOBIN 

The jacobin is of continental origin, and has 
its name from the fancied resemblance, in the 
hooded white head, to the cowl and shaven 
head of the friar. The bird is small in body, 
the loose, silky feathering giving it a size to 
which its weight does not correspond. The 
legs and feet are clean. The difficult points in 
breeding are the adornings of the head, the 
lower part of which closely resemble a muffler; 
these feathers grow in two directions. The 
colors are red, silver, black, white, and blue. 

THE TRUMPETER 

The trumpeter Is divided into the toy and 



THE VARIOUS BREEDS 59 

Russian. The former was the toy of the Ger- 
man fancier who bred him in all colors, and In 
splashes, checkers, and solids; he put bars on 
the wings, changed the color of the chest, the 
rose, and boots, giving as many names as he 
could produce varieties. 

The Russian, on the contrary, Is only to be 
found In straight black, or white. It Is very 
"high-class" In the difficulties of breeding its 
points of rose, crest, and foot-feathers. The 
rose is the tuft of feathers covering the head 
from the base of the beak to the crest of the 
back, overhanging the eyes so that the bird can 
only see what Is beneath it. The feathers must 
diverge from the center regularly and lie 
smoothly. The crest Is at the back and extends 
from eye to eye. 

The half-blinded condition of the bird and 
Its excessive footfeathering combine to give It 
a groping character and a heavy appearance. 
The intense black plumage shows beautiful 
glints in the sunlight. They were first taken 
into England fifty years ago. The bird re- 
ceives its name from the peculiar and long-con- 
tinued sound of Its cooing. 

THE OWL AND TURBIT 

The owls stand foremost among the toy 



60 PIGEON RAISING 

breeds. The finest specimens weigh but from 
five to eight ounces each. They were first 
brought from Tunis, Africa. The owls, tur- 
bits, and orientals make up the frilled varie- 
ties. In all there is a general resemblance in 
short, plump body, short, stout beak, and the 
frill of curled feathers upon the breast. More 
importance is given to the shape of the head 
and beak than to the frill. The feathers at the 
back of the turbit head are sometimes inverted 
or curled upwards, forming the point or shell 
crest, whereas the owl head is always un- 
adorned, plain. 

The turbit is in all colors and may be of one 
throughout, or with body white and wings or 
tail colored. The owl-turbit is a cross of the 
turbit and owl, and in a measure resembles 
both. 

THE ORIENTALS 

The orientals are considered by some the 
gems of the fancy, combining as they do the 
grace of the owl-pigeon with a peculiarly rich 
plumage. The varieties have their origin in 
Turkey, and the characteristic white spot upon 
the tail, found in no other variety, Is considered 
due to their ancestor, the rock-pigeon, the only 



THE VARIOUS BREEDS 61 

others thus marked. The varieties of this 
class are the turbiteen, the blondinette, and the 
satinette. The colors of the orientals are pe- 
cular to them, being pinkish brown, orange, or 
sulphur, seal brown, purpHsh black, and very 
light blue. 

THE ARCHANGEL 

The archangel has its name from arc-en-clel, 
the rainbow, given with reference to its exceed- 
ingly rich-colored and iridescent plumage. 
This variety was introduced into England from 
the continent early in the 19th century. 

THE NUN AND PRIEST 

The nun, priest, and others are the toys. All 
are the result of the German breeder's skill 
and the tendency of the duffer stock, from 
which they were bred, to variation. This toy 
fancy had its origin in Germany, where it is 
carried to the greatest perfection. The object 
in it is to combine the color and marking to 
produce certain effects, and to make the colors 
retain their brilliancy and depth. The names 
given to the varieties refer to a fancied resem- 
blance in the marking. 



62 PIGEON RAISING 

THE TUMBLER 

Tumblers are prolific breeders and excellent 
parents, but are extremely small, so are exclu- 
sively a fancy pigeon. The tumbler's colors 
are bronze, black, buff, and also come in these 
colors mottled. In captivity tumblers cannot 
show off their wonderful tumbling feats, 
though there is a variety called "parlor tum- 
blers " that can fly only six inches from the 
ground and in this attempt turn a complete 
double somersault. The tumbler is an amiable 
little fellow who is very fond of playing pranks 
on larger pigeons. 

THE DRAGOON 

The dragoon is a large bird, much resembling 
the homer with which it is frequently crossed 
for market squabs. It comes in all the homer 
colors and has clean legs and feet. Its princi- 
pal distinguishing points from the homer are 
general size, heavy build, and heavy wattles at 
the base of beak and pronounced eye-cere. 

THE DUCHESSE 

The duchesse is a beautiful bird with some- 



THE VARIOUS BREEDS 63 

thing of the build of the dragoon without the 
heavy cere or wattles but heavily booted with 
long feathers. It is principally seen in white. 
Many breeders consider them poor squab feed- 
ers, but I have not found them so, the feath- 
ered feet being the principal objection to them 
for market squabs. 



NATURE AND HABITS 



CHAPTER V 

THE NATURE AND HABITS OF HIGH-BRED 
PIGEONS 

1HAVE alluded to the extreme sensitive- 
ness of the high-bred pigeon. It was my 
pleasure to sit for hours at a time on a 
camp stool in my pigeon yards and study the 
faces and motions of my feathered beauties. I 
found them capable of expressing all the emo- 
tions of human beings; love, hatred, forgive- 
ness, sympathy, horror, disdain, remorse, char- 
ity, jealousy, avarice, vanity, tenderness, last- 
ing affection, fickleness, domesticity, a love of 
gadding and gossip, dignity and reticence, sar- 
casm, and a love of playing jokes on one an- 
other; — yes, and pigeons laugh at, and enjoy 
a good joke as much as anybody, — and all of 
these emotions to an astonishing degree of de- 
velopment. 

They have one universal trait, however, — 
cleanliness. They are the daintiest, cleanest of 
God's creatures, constantly bathing and preen- 
ing their feathers. 

^7 



68 PIGEON RAISING 

Their nests look dirty and it is certainly in- 
congruous to see a dainty, beautifully plumed 
pigeon sitting on a manure caked nest Pigeon 
manure cannot, however, be as uncleanly as it 
looks and instinct certainly tells the pigeon it 
is not unhealthy for the young, else why should 
they select manure covered nests? To prove 
its cleansing properties, examine a manure cov- 
ered roof after a drenching rain — it looks as 
though it had been scoured with soap and 
water. 

Look over the nests daily to see if there are 
any dead squabs to be removed, but leave the 
nests alone; don't disturb your breeders by 
cleaning. If the nests are built up too high, 
take off the top layers, otherwise, leave them 
alone. They know best. 

Even in the wild state the pigeon is monoga- 
mous and mates for life, but when confined 
where food is plentiful and he does not have to 
forage for each meal, the love of the male for 
home duties and the care of the young will 
sometimes lead him to maintain two mates, 
when his efforts to do double duty during the 
time of incubation and feeding will be unremit- 
ting and amusing. I had a tiny bronze tumbler 
that invariably maintained two mates through- 
out the year. This is the only case that came 



NATURE AND HABITS 69 

under my notice, however, during my five years' 
experience with pigeons. 

To illustrate the lasting affection of a pig- 
eon, I will tell of a beautiful crested red runt I 
once owned. His mate was a little black 
homer, but, as I wished him mated to another 
runt or a Maltese hen pigeon, I gladly seized 
an opportunity to sell the homer one day. 

I kept him for two years and although I 
placed him in a pen with beautiful young runts 
and hens, he refused to take another mate. He 
lived quietly In his nests and dignifiedly ate, 
bathed, preened his feathers, sunned himself, 
and took his jumping and flying exercises, but 
refused to mate again. He was true to his first 
love. 

I finally sold him to a pigeon breeder who se- 
cretly laughed at my romance. Two years 
later he wrote me with an apology that my 
crested beauty had died as he had lived, a dig- 
nified example of lasting affection. I never 
heard whether or not his mate was equally as 
true. 

It is next to Impossible to distinguish the 
male from the female as they fly about the 
pens. The only really Infallible way Is to note 
when the male drives the female to her nest, 
or, If they are nesting, to note by the time of 



70 PIGEON RAISING 

day; for when there are eggs or young squabs, 
the male goes on the nest about ten in the morn- 
ing and remains until four in the afternoon, 
when the female goes on and remains until re- 
lieved by the male the following morning at 
ten. 

These habits are sure and regular as clock 
work, and I have never known pigeon experts 
use any other means of securing a mated pair. 
This fact will sometimes cause pigeon raisers 
to make blunders as in the following incident: 

One morning there was great commotion In 
the market pen. A pigeon was wildly flying 
about from nest to nest pecking at the half- 
grown squabs in a frenzy. Thinking, of course, 
the bird was a bad-tempered bachelor, I chased 
him out of the house, caught him with a net, 
and threw him rather roughly into the bachelor 
pen. 

He lit on the roof of the little house among 
a dozen or more bachelors. The poor thing 
crouched down in seeming agony, and, suppos- 
ing I had unwittingly injured it, I watched a 
moment before I noticed the faces of the bach- 
elors. Instead of bowing and cavorting around 
in sarcastic welcome as they usually did when I 
added a new member to their pen, they stood 
silent and awe-stricken, with horror and help- 



NATURE AND HABITS 71 

less sympathy vividly depicted on their expres- 
sive faces. 

Turning again to the subject of this unusual 
emotion, I saw her crouch, for it indeed proved 
to be a female, and rise high on Her feet sev- 
eral times in great agony, and then with a final 
effort, an egg rolled out and down the sloping 
roof, crashing on the cement below. 

What I had supposed to be a bachelor was 
an eggbound female, the. only case, so far as I 
know, that occurred during my experience in 
pigeon raising. But I have heard that they 
suffer untold agony. Doubtless, my rough 
treatment gave her ultimate relief. It was cu- 
rious, however, that the bachelors should have 
recognized her trouble and sympathized with 
her, and in so doing had attracted my attention 
to her. I gently caught her with my hand and 
placed her alone in a box with food and water 
for a few hours, then let her loose, when she 
seemed recovered, and flew happily to her 
nest where her mate greeted her lovingly. 

Many times pigeons are extremely kind and 
charitable to one another. Once one of my fe- 
male runts died, leaving a pair of featherless 
squabs, and the feeding and hovering devolved 
entirely on the widowed father. Just above 
his nests lived a pair of homers with squabs of 



72 PIGEON RAISING 

the same age. These homers came down daily 
and assisted the bereaved father to feed and 
hover his Httle ones until they were old enough 
to leave the nest. 

Mr. Bronze Tumbler had one of his estab- 
lishments in one side of an orange box, while 
the Newlyweds were setting up housekeeping 
on the other side. In the partition between was 
a large knot-hole through which Bronze Tum- 
bler watched the proceedings of the young 
couple while he hovered his week-old squabs. 
As the young couple flew back and forth with 
straws, Mr. Bronze, with a mischievous look 
on his comical little face, drew straw after 
straw through the knot-hole until he was well- 
nigh buried in loot. His neighbors opposite 
seeing what he was up to telegraphed the news 
down the line, and everybody that was off duty 
flew to see the fun, while those attending to 
eggs or squabs craned their heads out of the 
nests to hear the chattering. 

Then the little bride, coming in to settle her 
furniture, became cognizant of the cruel joke 
that had been played upon them and was at 
once the picture of hurt dejection; I really felt 
like offering her my handkerchief to wipe away 
her tears, for the other pigeons were having no 
end of amusement at her expense. In flies Mr. 



NATURE AND HABITS 73 

Newlywed and takes in the situation at a glance, 
and immediately prepares for war. Little 
Tumbler nimbly extricates himself from straws 
and squabs and quickly flies out of the window, 
the bridegroom in hot pursuit. 

Then up steps Mr. Pouter in all the gallant 
grandeur of inflated crop to offer sympathy to 
the bride. Back comes Mr. N. from a fruitless 
search and finds the oflicious pouter neatly bal- 
ancing himself on the bride's threshold while 
he cooes condolingly. This is too much! The 
battle royal begins. Down on the floor they 
tumble where they bat at each other with out- 
spread wings, the pouter towering high with 
his superior height and spindling legs. Through 
the entire length of the lOO-foot house heads 
are poked out from nests piled up high on 
either side, while the little bride demurely sets 
to work drawing the stolen straws back through 
the knot-hole, and the mischievous Mr. Tum- 
bler creeps back to his squabs. 

If pigeons have a sufficient number of roomy, 
comfortable nests and are well-fed, they will 
begin to lay as soon as their squabs get their 
feathers. They are, however, like human 
beings and have likes and dislikes. Some 
prefer to nest in dark, cold corners, or on the 
floor, while others will breed only if they can 



74 PIGEON RAISING 

obtain a high dry nest where a few rays of sun- 
shine can reach. 

I had some pigeons nesting in a dark corner 
of the pigeon house, all first-class breeders ex- 
cept one pair, and they never had squabs. I 
took this pair out and placed them in a small 
pen and open house where the sun reached 
their nests the first thing in the morning. They 
became my finest breeders. I always found it 
profitable to humor their whims. 

It is a laughable sight to see the male driv- 
ing the female to her nest. He pecks at her 
and chases her all over the house and yard un- 
til she finally gives in and settles down on her 
nest, when he becomes all devoted attention and 
brings extra nesting material to make her com- 
fortable. Then she, in a forgiving spirit, grate- 
fully kisses him and tucks the straws beneath 
her. 

The feeding of squabs by their parents is the 
most marvelous thing in nature. 

I have stated that the male takes his regular 
turn on the nest. As the time approaches for 
the eggs to hatch, a thin watery substance 
forms in the crops of both parents which is 
called pigeon milk, and this they begin feeding 
to their young after they are a few hours old. 
Gradually the milk becomes less digested until, 



NATURE AND HABITS 75 

by the time the squabs are fully feathered, it is 
whole grain soaked in water. A pigeon always 
eats all he can, then fills his crop with water. 

As soon as it is time for the milk to form 
for the new babies, the parents drive the older 
ones off the nest to shift for themselves, if they 
have not already gone of their own accord. It 
is then time for the breeder to remove them 
to a youngster pen, at the same time pulling out 
their tail feathers, on the principle, I suppose, 
of cutting off a child's hair to increase its size 
and strength. From the market pen they are 
shipped before they are old enough to leave 
the nest — between three and four weeks old. 

The milk flows easily from the parent's bill 
Into that of the baby squab as she or he hovers 
it, but when it becomes less digested it requires 
much labor and the parent is obliged to stand. 
That is the reason the nests should be large, 
with a wide platform before them, otherwise 
they will become discouraged and will not 
breed, especially the English runt, which Is the 
largest known pigeon. Under proper condi- 
tions I have found the runt to be as prolific a 
breeder as the homer and hen pigeons. 

Pigeons have the reputation of eating off 
their heads, but the pigeon raiser must take 
Into consideration that he is feeding four in- 



76 PIGEON RAISING 

stead of two. The exertion is so great in feed- 
ing their young that the parents should not be 
obliged to go far for food and water, and I 
have found that they do better with small fly- 
pens. 

I placed six pairs in a roomy house with a 
fly-pen six by ten for one year. In that year I 
took out of that pen 120 healthy, strong squabs 
and the parents were in prime condition. 

It is cruel and unprofitable to be rough and 
unkind to breeding pigeons. I should just as 
soon maltreat a nursing mother. If the par- 
ents are frightened while they are with milk it 
injures the baby squabs. At the time of the 
great earthquake in 1906 I lost every baby 
squab on my place. 

I always employed gentle, quiet men to work 
on my place. Occasionally you can find a suit- 
able boy, but I prefer a gentle, kindly old man, 
a man, perhaps, that can be gotten at the poor- 
house, who is glad to come for a comfortable 
living and ten dollars a month, and enjoys pot- 
tering about the pigeons and place. The work 
Is really not heavy enough for an able-bodied 
man, and such a one is apt to be impatient and 
too quick in moving among nesting pigeons. 

If for any reason the pigeons in milk lose 
their squabs, the pigeon raiser must immedl- 



NATURE AND HABITS 77 

ately take a squab of the same age from an- 
other nest and give it to them. If they do not 
feed off the milk it injures them. I always went 
through my houses every morning and exam- 
ined each nest. They knew and loved me and 
had confidence that I would not injure them. 



BREEDING 



CHAPTER VI 

BREEDING 

THE pigeon fancier is an artist among 
breeders and his work of producing liv- 
ing, highly colored models of beauty is 
the finished work of the painter. His object in 
breeding is different from that of most breed- 
ers in being solely to maintain the fancy points 
of color and outline, with no reference to util- 
ity. His material is the most impressionable 
known, and being wholly artificial, is as un- 
stable. Through all the difficulties of fancy 
breeding it must be remembered that the male 
influences the external points and the female, 
the size, structure, and constitution. As for in- 
stance, if a carrier cock were mated to a runt 
female, their squabs would have the carrier's 
wattles and eye-cere but the runt size, struc- 
ture, and constitution. Or if the cock was a 
jacobin, the squabs would shine forth in all the 
glories of muffler and hood. The breeder 
should select his ideal and work until he gains 
his point. 

8i 



82 PIGEON RAISING 

The tendency of all colors is to pale, and in 
order to enrich or maintain them, birds of dif- 
ferent colors must be bred together. As a 
rule, in birds of the same blood, the young fol- 
low in color and marking the parent of the 
same sex, while in matings of different colors 
and of different strains the young follow the 
color and marking of the opposite sex. 

Some simple rules for breeding for color are: 
black and red produce the same colors solid, 
but intensified; blue and silver produce the 
same colors solid, but intensified; black and sil- 
ver, dun; white is splashed or blotted with 
whatever it is blended; to obtain rainbow, start 
with white and blend successively with red, 
blue, and silver until the proper scintillating ef- 
fects are obtained. Blotches may be the first 
results, but persevere, using one of the three 
colors with each generation until the desired 
effect is reached. It is well worth the trial. 
The black bars so highly prized in the mark- 
ings of modern blues come direct from their 
wild progenitors. 

In breeding for fancy, or thoroughbred, 
stock a strict system of banding must be ad- 
hered to. To entirely control his future work- 
ings the breeder should band his squabs while 
in the nest, slipping a closed band over one foot 



BREEDING 88 

of each squab, while it is soft and pliable (five 
days old), marked with a number, thus: 270, 
271. Then enter these numbers in a record 
book, with the date, under the number of the 
nest in which the squabs were hatched. The 
numbers are the nest-mate numbers. When 
the squabs are grown into pigeons the breeder 
adds to his record the color, marking and sex, 
thus: 

n. 24— ps. 125 & 130. ns. 7 & 10. 
Jan. 1913. 270 — s. b. cock 
271 — h. b. hen 
Mar. " 272 — b. b. hen 

This means nest 24, parents 125 and 130 
from nests 7 and 10. Date of hatch, January, 
19 13. 270 and 271 are nest-mates (in fact all 
squabs from ps. 125 & 130 are nest-mates) — 
the cock being silver-barred and the hen blue- 
barred. March, 1913, 272, a blue-barred hen, 
was the only occupant of nest 24. 

As pigeons never change their nests, by 
means of this record book the breeder can trace 
back the genealogy of a pigeon for generations. 
If one of the parents dies and a new mate is 
taken, the breeder simply draws a line beneath 
the last hatch and starts anew, thus: 

n. 24 — ps. 125 & 200, ns. 7 & 40. 



84 PIGEON RAISING 

By looking up nests 7 and 40 the breeder can 
in a few moments tell who 125 and 200 are 
and their colors, marking, and ages, and so on 
as long as the book stands. 

With regard to the age of breeding pigeons, 
cocks have been known to breed healthy, strong 
squabs at fifteen years of age, but, of course, 
they were mated to young hens. 

On no account allow nest-mates to mate, 
though this never occurs if there are other birds 
to choose from. 

Although it is well to allow birds to choose 
their own mates ordinarily, the breeder re- 
quires the use of a mating coop when he is de- 
sirous of making special points In breeding. 
This coop has two compartments with a remov- 
able wire partition through which the birds 
may see each other. Leave them for a day or 
two and if they appear friendly and the cock is 
doing everything he can to fascinate the hen, 
remove the partition and leave them until the 
hen returns the cock's caresses, then turn them 
into the pen intended for them. Such a coop is 
three feet long, two feet wide, and two feet 
high. 

Black meat squabs are looked upon as a 
blemish on the breeder's skill, and the moment 
one is discovered it is expelled and his progeni- 



BREEDING 85 

tors are looked up at once. They come from 
no particular breed or color, but from in- 
breeding. 

The pigeon is unique among the feathered 
creation in the positive similarity of the sexes, 
the habits during incubation, the provision for, 
and manner of, feeding the young, the helpless 
and crude condition of the young when it leaves 
the shell, and its rapid development and early 
maturity. In structural points there are also 
peculiar differences. The long intestine is of 
greater length than in any other bird, some va- 
rieties lack the oil-gland, while all are without 
the gall-bladder. This latter deficiency in its 
digestive make-up accounts for the inordinate 
desire for salt, characteristic of no other bird, 
which must be considered a craving for an ab- 
solute essential to its healthful existence. The 
dangers from the lack of a plentiful supply of 
salt I have explained in another chapter. 

Another peculiar feature of the pigeon is 
that the shafts of his feathers are short and 
downless with but slight hold on the skin. All 
varieties shed a peculiar dust from the plumage 
in greater or less quantities, so that any place 
they occupy will in time be covered with a 
peculiar bloom called pigeon dust. 

As the fancy breeder breeds for perfection, 



86 PIGEON RAISING 

after whatever model he selects, he does not 
allow his birds to breed more than once or 
twice a year, so that the accumulated strength 
of the parents may go into the young; this Is 
especially true in breeding record homers. For 
market stock it is different. I believe young 
pigeons of any of the various breeds I have 
here mentioned can be taken and, giving them 
proper conditions, first-class breeders can be 
made from them. In selecting breeds for mar- 
ket, however, the breeder must conform to the 
requirements of the market. Birds too closely 
bred will make poor breeders. 

Squabs that are slow to learn to eat may be 
fattened and taught to eat by hand feeding 
with hemp and millet seed slightly moistened 
with salted water and a little fine gravel or grit. 
Some breeders blow in soft food through a 
syringe into the squab's crop. I have never 
tried it, but have heard it is constantly done In 
Europe. There are even professional squab- 
feeders. 

BREEDING FOR MARKET 

My experience ran over many known breeds 
of pigeons and, for health, strength, size, 
shape, prolific breeders, and market value, I 



BREEDING 87 

give the preference to the runt-Maltese hen 
crosses. For breeders, squabs of the first cross; 
for market, squabs of the second cross. 

For instance, I put my young thoroughbred 
Stock, which was thoroughbred Maltese hens 
and English runts, in a pen by themselves and 
allowed them to choose their own mates. After 
I saw that they were well mated — good breed- 
ers — I took the runts that were mated with 
runts and hen pigeons that were mated with hen 
pigeons and placed them back in the thorough- 
bred pens. The runts and hen pigeons that 
were mated together I placed in the breeders' 
pen. The young stock from the breeders' pen 
was placed in a pen by itself, and when they 
paired and the pairs were found to be good 
breeders they were placed in the market pen. 
One can readily see that by this method the 
stock is constantly increasing and there is abso- 
lutely no danger of inbreeding in the breeder 
and market stock pens, a watch only having to 
be kept on the thoroughbred pens which have 
only a few dozen in each. 

Occasionally, you will find birds that are 
barren, or that lay infertile eggs. Do not dis- 
card these birds as they are invaluable as nur- 
sery maids. Put them in a pen by themselves 
and give them the eggs from either some fine 



88 PIGEON RAISING 

breeders, or birds that are inferior parents, to 
raise. I have also given them half-grown 
squabs to feed after I had sold off their par- 
ents, or young squabs that were being raised 
for breeders that were slow about learning to 
eat. 

Watch for the female nursery maid to retire 
to her nest to try to lay. After a few hours, or, 
perhaps, the next day, cautiously slip In a 
freshly laid egg of some other pigeon and a 
day or two later slip in another. I have even 
placed two at once ond the foster-mother did 
not appear to know the difference. She may 
fly off the nest each time, but as soon as you are 
gone she will return and there will be great re- 
joicing in the little household at finding the egg. 
Like childless human beings, these nursery 
maids are always glad to take young squabs to 
feed or eggs to hatch, and, although they are 
Incapable of reproducing themselves, the pig- 
eon milk forms in their crops for other pigeons' 
squabs. By taking one or two pairs of eggs a 
year from good breeders you obtain more 
squabs without giving the breeders the exhaus- 
tive work of raising and feeding. My nursery 
maids were a most successful part of my pigeon 
plant. I raised hundreds of extra squabs in 
this way, and sometimes squabs that would oth- 



BREEDING 89 

erwise have died. It requires about seventeen 
days for pigeon eggs to hatch. 

In selling mated pairs it must be remem- 
bered not to sell those in milk, as there Is a 
chance of injuring the pigeons so that they will 
never breed again. 

Pigeon raisers, to be successful, must be gen- 
tle and kindly disposed, willing to spend many 
hours in studying their charges. I learned to 
recognize every pigeon in my flock. Every 
face seemed to have a different expression, in 
which I could read their joys and sorrows. 

It Is Indeed a thankless employment selling 
pigeons for breeding. As I have already stated 
it is purely optional with pigeons whether they 
breed or not. 

It Is always a lottery when you sell mated 
pairs whether they will be happy in their new 
quarters and willing to raise a family. But this 
the pigeon raiser cannot make the buyer believe 
or understand, and if his mated pairs do not set 
to work nest-building he immediately accuses 
the seller of rank deception. Whereas, the 
fault may lie entirely with his own manage- 
ment and treatment of his purchase, or the 
birds may be afflicted with incurable homesick- 
ness for their friends and surroundings. This 
IS the reason I Invariably advise the purchase 



90 PIGEON RAISING 

of youngsters in order that they may be allowed 
to grow up together and become attached to 
their surroundings. The results are surer and 
more satisfactory, even if one does get a few 
odd ones; for, as it is difficult to recognize the 
old ones apart, it is impossible to distinguish 
between the male and female when they are 
young. 

I have shipped pigeons to British Columbia 
and Honolulu with the greatest success and 
failed utterly in those I have sold within a few 
miles. In my own experience I have had the 
greatest success in buying outside stock, but, al- 
though my houses were not up-to-date, the plant 
was large and sunny and the inhabitants so nu- 
merous and happy that newcomers did not feel 
like moping. 

A lady, one day, selected a beautiful pair of 
silver runts to be sent to her home in Victoria, 
B. C. She asked me not to ship them for ten 
days as she wished to return and make ready 
for them. It was decided that I should start 
them on their journey on the morning of April 
17th. It was in the year 1906. 

I put them in a strong, roomy box, well 
sanded with white sand, and I nailed on the in- 
side a feed box, salted grit box, and water cup 
with an attached funnel for refilling, and se- 



BREEDING 91 

curely tied a strong muslin sack of assorted 
grain to the slats on top. The birds and their 
equipment were the admiration of all that saw 
them. But the expressman, after asserting that 
it would take but three days to reach their des- 
tination, laughingly said I had supplied them 
with enough grain for a three weeks' journey. 

The next morning at five o'clock came the 
terrible earthquake of April i8th, 1906. Later 
in the day, after I had summed up my com- 
paratively few losses, I congratulated myself on 
having gotten the silver runts off early the pre- 
vious day, believing they were then well on 
their journey. Three weeks later I received a 
letter from the lady saying the birds had just 
arrived but in excellent condition. They had 
been detained in Oakland over the night of the 
17th, and for much longer after the i8th, and, 
finally, were shipped by sea. It was most for- 
tunate that they had gotten out of San Fran- 
cisco, otherwise, they must have perished in the 
fire that immediately followed the earthquake. 



DISEASE AND FEEDING 



CHAPTER VII 

DISEASE AND FEEDING 

WITH ordinary humane attention the 
pigeon in captivity is a remarkably 
healthy bird. I gave my birds good, 
pure running water and the best of feed and, 
although I left the nests alone, merely cleaning 
the floors, I never had that much dreaded dis- 
ease, canker, after I once got my flock well 
regulated as to breeding. This disease, I be- 
lieve, comes from inbreeding and, likely, from 
improper food and water, but never from ex- 
terior contact with the manure, which is too 
strong with ammonia to be uncleanly or un- 
healthy. 

Some pigeon raisers think canker comes 
from close confinement and lack of exercise, 
but that cannot be as some of my fly-pens were 
extremely small. Pigeons are natural athletes 
and, in close confinement, regularly go through 
a sort of physical culture exercise. It is a beau- 
tiful sight to see them, many times resembling 
graceful ballet dancers In the butterfly dance. 

95 



96 PIGEON RAISING 

I have seen a hundred or more practicing these 
exercises at the same time. 

Another beautiful sight is to see them in a 
first shower. Five or six hundred of my birds 
at a time would lie first on one side and then on 
the other on the ground, or roof, with first one 
wing and then the other raised high to catch the 
first drops of a storm. It is indeed a sight 
worth witnessing. 

As they are almost amphibious, storms do 
not prevent them from taking their regular ex- 
ercise. Many times I have marketed fine, 
healthy squabs from wet, soggy nests because 
of their parents' love of nesting on the floor 
where storms from the south could reach them. 

The only other disease I have had experi- 
ence with is "going light." The pigeon loses 
all flesh and becomes as light in weight as his 
own feathers. The preventive of this is simple. 
Of course, a plentiful supply of good feed and 
water is understood. Besides, keep grit, shells, 
and salty water constantly before them. The 
free pigeon searches until he finds them; the 
imprisoned pigeon is dependent on his care- 
taker for his supply of these chief essentials to 
his diet. Without them, he loses all appetite 
and goes into a decline. 

Fill a small dish half full with rock-salt and 



DISEASE AND FEEDING 97 

fill it up with water, stirring it well. They will 
drink the water and keep well, I usually sim- 
plified matters by pouring a strong solution of 
rock-salt over the grit. Undissolved salt, salt 
in grain, is not good for them, they eat too 
much and I have known them to die almost im- 
mediately. 

Broken oyster shells and grit, the latter with 
a strong solution of salt poured over it, should 
be kept in dishes convenient for them. I kept 
mine in the yard near the feeders. If the con- 
tents of these dishes become soiled with ma- 
nure, wash them off and pour fresh salty water 
over the grit. I kept rock-salt in solution con- 
stantly on hand, adding more as it dissolved. 

Pigeons never over-eat themselves, and I 
should as soon stint the food supply of a nurs- 
ing mother as a breeding pigeon. If you do 
not give them good and varied food, they have 
their revenge by giving you empty nests. Pig- 
eons also never eat unclean food. If swill or 
scraps are thrown into a pigeon yard the pig- 
eons will look at it in wonder but never touch 
It. They are even chary of taking up with a 
new variety of grain, but they will never touch 
filth of any kind, while the highest bred chicken 
will greedily devour the foulest kind of filth 
from both animals and humans. 



98 PIGEON RAISING 

A squab never has anything but the cleanest 
of food which makes him far better food for 
an invalid or aged person. For this reason 
doctors and nurses appreciate them as valuable 
rejuvenators for building up weak invalids. 

Keep the cheapest feed constantly before 
them in feeders and feed the more expensive 
twice a day, in the morning when the female 
comes off her long night's vigil, and in the aft- 
ernoon after the male comes off. Be regular 
and prompt and they will know what to expect; 
then the bird on the nest will not fly off for a 
change of diet thus chilling babies or eggs, or 
one parent will not have all the dainties while 
the other has cheap feed. 

At the time of my experience (from 1903 
to 1908) I found chevalier barley the cheap- 
est. I also found it the most beneficial. 
Bearded barley is not so good and is quite as 
expensive in the end, as the heads are not so 
full and perfect and you are paying for a lot 
of weight in beards; besides, pigeons do not 
care for it. 

Barley keeps them lively and well without 
making them too fat. It is an all-around-the- 
year feed, and if the pigeon breeder has a place 
to store it, it is a good plan to buy in a year's 

supply when the crop first comes in. 



DISEASE AND FEEDING 99 

Egyptian corn is the next safe and staple 
pigeon grain for all the year round, but is more 
expensive. Through the summer months I fed 
it twice daily, one day with Canadian peas and 
next day with red wheat. In the winter I fed 
It every other day with peas, and the other 
days I fed red wheat with whole Indian corn, 
which is too heating for summer. There is a 
frightful waste In cracked corn. Give pigeons 
plenty of grit and salty water and they can 
easily digest the large kernels. 

I always kept hemp and millet seeds to feed 
one or twice a week to the youngsters I was 
raising for breeders. They are the most ex- 
pensive grains, but a sack of each lasts for a 
long time with careful feeding. 

An alfalfa patch materially cuts down the 
grain bill by being a beneficial food and it Is 
likewise useful for nesting material. I had a 
patch forty-six by thirty-five feet, with two 
faucets and a drain pipe from the main pigeon 
pen for irrigation. With a sickle I cut two 
sacks full, that is, two sacks laid on the ground 
and piled up as high as I could carry them with- 
out spilling, every morning all the year round, 
when It was not raining. By the time I had 
reached the lower end of the patch, the upper 
end was ready to cut. I scattered it on the 



100 PIGEON RAISING 

ground in different pens and the pigeons greed- 
ily ate off the leaves and tender part, leaving the 
stalks to dry for nesting material. 

When raising pigeons wholesale, grain must 
be bought wholesale; that is, buy direct from 
wholesale grain dealers and they will buy back 
the sacks at highest figures; for instance, when 
junkmen and retail merchants offer two and a 
half or three cents a piece, the wholesale grain 
dealers will give five cents straight. My grain 
sacks always paid for the grit, shells, and rock- 
salt* I used. I have dealt with both retail and 
wholesale dealers so I know the difference in 
prices for I have bought tons and tons of 
grain. 

I made out a list of the grains I required 
through the year, and went to the wholesale 
grain dealers and selected the one that gave me 
the best terms, was willing to secure the kinds 
of grain I needed, and would deliver it at my 
place. I had the same dealer for over four 
years. He sent long distances for red wheat 
and peas for me, always gave me the best 
quality at the lowest figures he could, and was 
ever ready and willing to take back any grain 
that was not up to the required standard. In 
return for this square dealing I recommended 
him to people far and near. 

An easy way to test the quality of a sack 



DISEASE AND FEEDING 101 

of grain without opening it is to run a long pen- 
cil in the meshes of the sack in several places. 
Loose kernels will flow out from the center of 
the sack and thus the inner contents can be 
closely examined. 

There Is a great deal written by Eastern 
pigeon men about the sale of the manure pay- 
ing the grain bills. I tried in every direction 
and for every purpose to sell the tons of manure 
that were scraped from my houses and yards, 
but was never able to sell a penny's worth. It 
was only through influence and scientific dem- 
onstration that I was enabled to give it away to 
a hospital farm as a fertilizer. 

From my observation of the orchards in 
the surrounding country and my own experi- 
ments with two trees. I believe fruit trees re- 
quire as much and as careful feeding as breeding 
pigeons. It seems cruel to cull crop afer crop 
from trees and vineyard without once renewing 
the soil. This has been done continually with 
the result that in a few years the orchards have 
become exhausted. Would it not be more 
profitable to spread the ground with manure as 
soon as each crop is gathered and let the rains 
gradually wash the nourishment into the soil? 
Trees thus treated do not require irrigation 
and respond gratefully with abundant and never 
failing crops. 



MARKETING, KILLING, AND 
CURING FEATHERS 



CHAPTER VIII 

MARKETING, KILLING, AND CURING FEATHERS 

FOR the sure and steady financial returns 
the pigeon raiser looks to his market 
stock. Here he does not have to deal 
with persons of whims and fancies, and his 
square dealing is understood and appreciated 
by the buyers. 

My experience in this kind of selling has 
been entirely with the Western market. When 
I was first looking into pigeon raising I wrote 
to many places in San Francisco and out of the 
replies I received I selected two large and well 
established markets whose proprietors wrote 
me kind and courteous letters, saying they would 
take all the squabs I could send them, whether 
a large or small shipment, and would give me 
the highest market prices. They added that 
they preferred receiving them by Friday of 
each week, but would take them whenever it 
was most convenient for me to send them and 
either alive or dead. 

105 



106 PIGEON RAISING 

I shipped to these same men exclusively dur- 
ing the entire time I was in the pigeon business 
and always found them kind and considerate — 
prompt in payment and in the return of the 
shipping baskets. I reciprocated by being 
equally prompt in shipping by the same train on 
the same day of each week and as nearly as 
possible the same number of squabs, so that 
they could count on my supply. And, as my 
squabs were first-class in every way, they gave 
me good prices all the year round. 

I had eight or ten strong, roomy, well-venti- 
lated baskets made at a basket weaver's for 
$2.25 a piece. There was a partition across the 
center to prevent crowding into one corner and 
causing smothering, and as my squabs were 
large, I rarely put more than eighteen in a 
basket — nine on a side. 

I cannot remember the exact dimensions of 
these baskets, but think they were thirty inches 
long by fifteen wide and nine inches high. Two 
of these nine Inches, at the top, were open 
slats. The remainder of the basket was closely 
woven. The opening part of the lid was five 
or six inches wide, running the full length of the 
basket. At first I used padlocks, giving the 
marketmen duplicate keys, but after the keys 
were destroyed in the fire I simply tied the 



MARKETING 107 

lids down with stout string and the squabs were 
shipped in perfect safety. 

As the marketmen could make better rates, 
they paid the expressage and deducted the 
amount from the returns. This included the 
feturn of the shipping baskets. The expressage 
was light — something like four baskets for 
forty-five cents. 

It is best not to ship exclusively to one mar- 
ket for fear of lowering the price. 

If the market the breeder selects demands 
3ressed squabs, or if the breeder wishes to take 
advantage of an added revenue by curing the 
feathers, of course It is to his advantage to do 
this part of the marketing as neatly and with 
as much dispatch as possible. The squabs 
should be gathered the day before they are to 
be killed and confined in baskets or coops of 
some sort where they may keep each other 
warm, if the weather Is cold; but not too many 
in one compartment for fear some will be 
smothered. The reason for gathering them up 
so early Is that the crop and intestines may be- 
come entirely emptied of all undigested and 
digested food, as In this state they will keep for 
a much longer time after being killed. Twenty- 
four hours is the length of time usually allowed. 
A squab Is ready to kill when it is plump and 



108 PIGEON RAISING 

well feathered, usually between three and four 
weeks old. They need not be feathered under 
the wings, but all top feathers should be out. 

There are two ways of killing a squab, one 
with a killing knife, which comes especially for 
the purpose, and the other by tweaking the 
neck. In the latter method hold the hands 
close together on the neck next the head and 
break It by a sudden pull forward and then 
push back quickly. Too much strength must 
not be used or the head will come off, which 
must not occur as all markets require the heads 
left on. I have shipped three ways; dressed, 
killed and unplucked, and alive. 

Whether plucked or unplucked, the birds must 
hang suspended by the feet until the blood runs 
out of the body or they will bruise in packing. 
The simplest way to do this is to suspend from 
the ceiling by a wire at each end a piece of 
studding eight or ten feet long with two nine- 
penny wire finish nails driven close enough to- 
gether to admit of squeezing between them the 
feet of a squab; set these four inches apart and 
above each place a number on the studding. If 
the nails are numbered the squabs will not have 
to be counted. 

As each squab Is killed It Is hung by Its feet 
being caught between the two nails in the 
studding. If they are to be shipped unplucked 



MARKETING 109 

they are allowed to hang over night to cool 
thoroughly and so the blood may drain out of 
the body into the head before shipping, when 
they can be graded; tie the best ones in bunches 
and the smaller ones together, and send thus 
properly ticketed with the address of the mar- 
ket and that of the shipper and number of 
birds in the bunch; or the bunches tied in a sack 
and ticketed. There is less likelihood of any 
of the bunches being lost by following the latter 
plan. 

No matter how the squab breeder ships he 
must grade his birds, putting the largest to- 
gether and the smaller ones by themselves; it 
is also best to send the same grade to the same 
market each time, so the markets will know 
what to expect. There is danger of lowering 
the price and injuring the reputation of the 
pigeon plant by mixing grades. 

When I had my squabs plucked I employed 
two men and paid them by the squab — one cent 
and a half. They could kill, pluck, plunge 
into water, and hang up to dry from twenty- 
four to thirty squabs in an hour. 

While one man was getting some vessels of 
water ready, the other started in to kill and 
hang up; then the other followed closely with 
rough picking, beginning at the neck and leav- 
ing about three-quarters of an inch next the 



110 PIGEON RAISING 

head unpicked. Care must be used not to 
break the skin. If the bird is well fattened the 
skin is not easily torn. The process of tweak- 
ing the neck also stretches the neck so it is 
not easily torn. If killed with the killing knife 
it is best to attach a weighted wire in the mouth. 
These wires are six inches long, hooked and 
pointed at the upper end, and weighted at the 
lower end with a piece of lead the size of a 
small walnut. 

As soon as the first man finishes killing he 
starts in to pluck out the pinfeathers from those 
" rough picked " ; in this operation a small knife 
is useful. As he finishes each bird he washes 
out the mouth and the feet then plunges it 
into a tub of clean cold water to remove the 
animal heat and to make the flesh firm and 
plump. 

As soon as the second man has finished 
" rough picking " he turns in to help the other 
man do the pinfeathering. Together they take 
the birds from the water and hang them up 
for five minutes to drain. By the time the 
last is hung up the first are ready to pack. In 
this way two men have handled ten dozen birds 
in from four to five hours. 

No matter how the birds are shipped it Is a 
distinct advantage that the market stock should 



MARKETING 111 

be clean limbed, as a booted bird makes that 
much more work in plucking. 

If they are to be shipped some distance and 
the weather is warm it is best to pack them 
with ice in boxes or kegs, placing a layer of 
cracked ice at the bottom, and alternating with 
birds and ice, finishing with a generous topping 
of ice. Place a secure covering over this and 
mark full directions to whom shipped, as well 
as the address of the shipper and the number of 
birds. The boxes should not be larger than two 
feet square and one foot high. 

For short distances I have merely used lay- 
ers of lettuce leaves so that the birds would not 
press on one another. Never ship in anything 
made of pine as it affects the flavor. The box 
or keg should under any circumstances be lined 
with cheap white paper so that the birds are 
not in direct contact with the wood. 

Pigeon raisers should be cautious how they 
antagonize marketmen by working up private 
trade. The marketmen can at any time under- 
sell him and throw him out of business, and still 
his grain bills go on. 

The marketman keenly appreciates a pro- 
ducer that upholds him in his business and he 
reciprocates whenever he can by giving good 
prices, paid in prompt checks, and the quick 



112 PIGEON RAISING 

return of the baskets. The marketman does 
not charge a commission. 

If squabs are shipped ahve they should be 
sent away with their crops full; they arrive in 
much better shape and the marketman need 
not feel compelled to kill them right away. If 
feed is kept constantly in the pigeon houses or 
pens, the breeder can feel sure the squabs are 
fed, even though he commences gathering them 
before seven. 

The markets will not pay for a squab that 
has been smothered or in any other way killed 
in the shipping. ' 

CURING FEATHERS 

If the squabs are hung up immediately after 
killing there is not much trouble about the 
feathers becoming bloody, but if they should, 
It is an easy matter to clean them. In placing 
the squabs in their coops awaiting the killing. 
It is a good plan to put all the light squabs In 
together and all the dark ones together, so that 
when they are hung up for picking the light 
feathers will be separated from the dark. Take 
all the small feathers and put them into cheese 
cloth bags; then put them in a sink and let the 
water run over and through them until it runs 



MARKETING lia 

clear, tossing the feathers about in the bag and 
rubbing them against each other. Gently 
squeeze out the surplus water and, if it is a 
mild climate, hang the bags on the clothesline 
in the open air. If a cold, freezing climate, 
hang In the furnace room or some place where 
it is warm and dry, but put them in the open 
air whenever the weather will admit, until they 
plump up and smell clean and fresh. 



THE END 



@-y*i->f6 



HANDBOOKS 



The textbool^s for out- 
door work, and play 



^ Each book deals with a separate subject and deals with it thor- 
oughly. If you want to know anything about Airedales an OUTING 
HANDBOOK gives you all you want. If it's Apple Growing, another 
OUTING HANDBOOK meets your need. The Fisherman, the 
Camper, the Poultry-raiser, the Automobilist, the Horseman, all 
varieties of out-door enthusiasts, will find separate volumes for their 
separate interests. There is no waste space. 

€L The series is based on the plan of one subject to a book and each 
book complete. The authors are experts. Each book has been 
specially prepared for this series and aU are published in uniform 
style, flexible cloth binding. 

CL Two hundred titles are projected. The series covers all phases 
of outdoor life, from bee-keeping to big-game shooting. Among the 
books now ready or in preparation are those described on the fol- 
lowing pages. 

PRICE SEVENTY CENTS PER VOL. NET, POSTAjGE 5c. EXTRA 
THE NUMBERS MAKE ORDERING EASY. 

1. EXERCISE AND HEALTH, by Dr. Woods 

HutcnillSOn. Dr. Hutchinson takes the common-sense view that 
the greatest problem in exercise for most of us is to get enough of 
the right kind. The greatest error in exercise is not to take enough, 
and the greatest danger in athletics is in giving them up. He writes 
in a direct matter-of-fact manner with an avoidance of medical terms, 
and a strong emphasis on the rational, all-round manner of living 
that is best calculated to bring a man to a ripe old age with little 
illness or consciousness of bodily weakness. 



2. CAMP COOKERY, by Horace Kephart. «The 
less a man carries in his pack the more he must carry in his head," 
says Mr. Kephart. This book tells what a man should carry in both 
pack and head. Every step is traced — the selection of provisions 
and utensils, with the kind and quantity of each, the preparation of 
game, the building of fires, the cooking of every conceivable kind of 
food that the camp outfit or woods, fields or streams may provide — 
even to the making of desserts. Every recipe is the result of hard 
practice and long experience. 




3. BACKWOODS SURGERY AND MEDICINE, 

by Charles S. Moody, M. D. A handy book for the pru- 
dent lover of the woods who doesn't expect to be ill but believes in 
being on the safe side. Common-sense methods for the treatment 
of the ordinary wounds and accidents are described — setting a 
broken limb, reducing a dislocation, caring for burns, cuts, etc. 
Practical remedies for camp diseases are recommended, as well as 
the ordinary indications of the most probable ailments. Includes a 
list of the necessary medical and surgical supplies. 

4. APPLE GROWING, by M. C. Burritt. The 

various problems confronting the apple grower, from the preparation 
of the soil and the planting of the trees to the marketing of the fruit, 
are discussed in detail by the author. Chapter headings are: — The 
Outlook for the Growing of Apples — Planning for the Orchard — 
Planting and Growing the Orchard — Pruning the Trees — Cultivation 
and Cover Cropping — Mamu-ing and Fertilizing — Insects and Dis- 
eases Affecting the Apple — The Principles and Practice of Spraying 
— Harvesting and Storing — Markets and Marketing — Some Hints on 
Renovating Old Orchards — The Cost of Growing Apples. 

5. THE AIREDALE, by Williams Haynes. The 
book opens with a short chapter on the origin and development of 
the Airedale, as a distinctive breed. The author then takes np the 
problems of type as bearing on the selection of the dog, breeding, 
training and use. The book is designed for the non-professional dog 
fancier, who wishes common sense advice which does not involve 
elaborate preparations or expenditure. Chapters are included on the 
care of the dog in the kennel and simple remedies for ordinary 
diseases. 



6. THE AUTOMOBILE— Its Selection, Care and 

Use, by Robert Sloss. This is a plain, practical discussion of 
the things that every man needs to know if" he is to buy the right car 
and get the most out of it. The various details of operation and 
care are given in simple, intelligent terms. From it the car owner 
can easily learn the mechanism of his motor and the art of locating 
motor trouble, as well as how to use his car for the greatest pleasmre. 
A chapter is included on building garages. 

7. FISHING KITS AND EQUIPMENT, by 

Samuel G. Camp. A complete guide to the angler buying a new 
outfit. Every detail of the fishing kit of the freshwater angler is de- 
scribed, from rodtip to creel, and clothing. Special emphasis is laid 
on outfitting for fly fishing, bnt full instruction is also given to the 
man who wants to catch pickerel, pike, muskellunge, lake-trout, bass 
and other freshwater game fishes. Prices are quoted for all articles 
recommended and the approved method of selecting and testing the 
various rods, lines, leaders, etc., is described. 




8. THE FINE ART OF FISHING, by Samuel G. 

Camp. Combine the pleasure of catching fish with the gratification 
of foflowing the sport in the most approved manner. The sugges- 
tions offered are helpful to beginner and expert anglers. The range 
of fish and fishing conditions covered is wide and includes such sul)- 
jects as "Casting Fine and Far Off," "Strip-Casting for Bass," "Fish- 
ing for Mountain Trout" and "Autumn Fishing for Lake Trout." 
The book is pervaded with a spirit of love for the etreamside and 
the out-doors generally which the genuine angler will appreciate. 
A companion book to "Fishing Kits and Equipment." The advice 
on outfitting so capably given in that book la supplemented in this 
later work by equally valuable information on how to use the 
equipment. 

9. THE HORSE— Its Breeding, Care and Use, by 
David Buffum. Mr. Buffum takes up the common, every-day 
problems of the ordinary horse-users, 6uch as feeding, shoeing, 
simple home remedies, breaking and the cure for various equine 
vices. An important chapter is that tracing the influx of Arabian 
blood into the English and American horses and its value and limi- 
tations. Chapters are included on draft-horses, carriage horses, and 
the development of the two-minute trotter. It is distinctly a sensible 
book for the sensible man who wishes to know how he can improve 
his horses and his horsemanship at the same time. 



10. THE MOTOR BOAT— Its Selection, Care and 
Use, by U. W. Slauson. The intending purchaser is advised 
as to the type of motor boat best suited to his particular needs and 
how to keep it in running condition after purchased. The chapter 
headings are: Kinds and Uses of Motor Boats — When the Motor 
Balks — Speeding of the Motor Boat — Getting More Power from a 
New Motor — How to Install a Marine Power Plant — Accessories — 
Covers, Canopies and Tops — Camping and Cruising — The Boathouse. 

11. OUTDOOR SIGNALLING, by Elbert Wells. 

Mr. Wells has perfected a method of signalling by means of wig- 
wag, light, smoke, or whistle which is as simple as it is effective. 
The fundamental principle can bo learned in ten minutes and its 
application is far easier than that of any other code now in use. 
It permits also the use of cipher and can be ad.ipted to almost any 
imaginable conditions of weather, light, or topography. 

12. TRACKS AND TRACKING, by Josef Brunner. 

After twenty years of patient study and practical experience, Mr. 
Brunner can, from his intimate knowledge, speak with authority on 
this subject. "Tracks and Tracking" shows how to follow intelli- 
gently even the most intricate animal or bird tracks. It teaches how 
to interpret tracks of wild game and decipher the many tell-tale 
signs of the chase that would otherwise pass unnoticed. It proves 
how it is possible to tell from the footprints the name, sex, speed, 
direction, whether and how wounded, and many other things about 
wild animals and birds. All material has been gathered first hand ; 
the drawings and half-tones from photographs form an important 
part of the work. 




13. WING AND TRAP-SHOOTING, by Charles 

Askins. Contains a full discussion of the various methods, 
such as snap-shooting, swing and half-swing, discusses the flight of 
birds with reference to the gunner's problem of lead and range and 
makes special application of the various points to the different birds 
commonly shot in this country. A chapter is included on trap 
shooting and the book closes with a forceful and common-sense 
presentation of the etiquette of the field. 



14. PROFITABLE BREEDS OF POULTRY, by 

Arthur S. Wheeler. Mr. Wheeler discusses from personal ex- 
perience the best-known general purpose breeds. Advice is given 
from the standpoint of the man who desires results in eggs and stock 
rather than in specimens for exhibition. In addition to a careful 
analysis of stock — good and bad — and some conclusions regarding 
housing and management, the author writes in detail regarding 
Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, 
Mediterraneans and the Cornish. 

15. RIFLES AND RIFLE SHOOTING, by Charles 

Askins. A practical manual describing various makes and mechan- 
isms, in addition to discussing in detail the range and limitations in 
the use of the rifle. Treats on the every style and make of rifle 
as well as their use. Every type of rifle is discussed so that the 
book is complete in every detail. 

16. SPORTING FIREARMS, by Horace Kephart. 

This book is the result of painstaking tests and experiments. Prac- 
tically nothing is taken for granted. Part I deals with the rifle, and 
Part II with the shotgun. The mrn seeking guidance in the selec- 
tion and use of small firearms, as well as the advanced student of 
the subject, will receive an unusual amount of assistance from this 
work. The chapter headings are Rifles and Ammunition — The 
Flight of Bullets — Killing Power — Rifle Mechanism and Materials — 
Rifle Sights — Triggers and Stocks — Care of Rifle — Shot Patterns and 
Penetration — Gauges and Weights — Mechanism and Build of 
Shotguns. 

17. THE YACHTSMAN'S HANDBOOK, by Herbert 

Li. btone. The author and compiler of this work is the editor of 
" Yachting." He treats in simple language of the many problems 
confronting the amateur sailor ?nd motor boatman. Handling 
ground tackle, handling lines, taking soundings, the use of the lead 
line, care and use of sails, yachting etiquette, are all given careful 
attention. Some light is thrown upon the operation of the gasoline 
motor, and suggestions are made for the avoidance of engine 
troubles. 

18. SCOTTISH AND IRISH TERRIERS, by Wil- 
liams Haynes. This is a companion book to "The Airedale," 
and deals with the history and development of both breeds. For 
the owner of the dog, valuable information is given as to the use of 
the terriers, their treatment in health, their treatment when sick, 
the principles of dog breeding, and dog shows and rides. 



19. NAVIGATION FOR THE AMATEUR, by Capt. 

E. T. Morton. A short treatise on the simpler methods of find- 
ing position at sea by the observation of the sun's altitude and the 
use of the sextant and chronometer. It is arranged especiaUy for 
yachtsmen and amateurs who wish to know the simpler formulae 
for the necessary navigation involved in taking a boat anywhere off 
shore. Illustrated with drawings. Chapter headings : Fundamental 
Terms — Time — The Sumner Line— The Day's Work, Equal Altitude, 
and Ex-Meridian Sights — Hints on Taking Observations. 

20. OUTDOOR PHOTOGRAPHY, by JuUan A. 

Dimock. A solution of all the problems in camera work out-of- 
doors. The various subjects dealt with are : The Camera — Lens and 
Plates — Light and Exposure — Development — Prints and Printing — 
Composition — Landscapes — Figure Work — Speed Photography — The 
Leaping Tarpon — Sea Pictures — In the Good Old Winter Time — 
Wild Life. 

21. PACKING AND PORTAGING, by Dillon 

Wallace. Mr. Wallace has brought together in one volume all 
the valuable information on the different ways of making and carry- 
ing the different kinds of packs. The ground covered ranges from 
man-paoking to horse-packing, from the use of the tump line to 
throwing the diamond hitch. 

22. THE BULL TERRIER, by Williams Haynes. 

This is a companion book to "The Airedale" and "Scottish and Irish 
Terriers" by the same author. Its greatest usefulness is as a guide 
to the dog owner who wishes to be his own kennel manager. A full 
account of the development of the breed is given with a description 
of best types and standards. Recommendations for the care of 
the dog in health or sickness are included. The chapter heads 
cover such matters as:— The Bull Terrier's History — Training the 
Bull Terrier — The Terrier in Health — Kenneling — Diseases. 




23. THE FOX TERRIER, by Williams Haynes. 

As in his other books on the terrier, Mr. Haynes takes up the origin 
and history of the breed, its types and standards, and the more ex- 
clusive representatives down to the present time. Training the Fox 
Terrier — His Care and Kenneling in Sickness and Health — and the 
Various Uses to Which He Can Be Put — are among the phases 
handled. 

24. SUBURBAN GARDENS, by Grace Tabor. 

niustrated with diagrams. The author regards the house and 
grounds as a complete unit and shows how the best results may be 
obtained by carrying the reader in detail through the various phases 
of designing the garden, with the levels and contours necessary, 
laying out the walks and paths, planning and placing the arbors, 
summer houses, seats, etc., and selecting and placing trees, shrubs, 
vines and flowers. Ideal plans for plots of various sizes are appended, 
as well as suggestions for correcting mistakes that have been made 
through "starting wrong." 




25. FISHING WITH FLOATING FLIES, by 

Saiiliiel G. Camp. This is an art that is comparatively new in 
this country although English anglers have used the dry fly for 
generations. Mr. Camp has given the matter special study and is 
one of the few American anglers who really understands the matter 
from the selection of the outfit to the landing of the fish. His book 
takes up the process in that order, namely — How to Outfit for Dry 
Fly Fishing — How, Where, and When to Cast — The Selection and 
Use of Floating Flies — Dry Fly Fishing for Brook, Brown and 
Rainbow Trout — Hooking, Playing and Landing— Practical Hints on 
Dry Fly Fishing. 

26. THE GASOLINE MOTOR, by Harold Whiting 

Slauson. Deals with the practical problems of motor operation. 
The standpoint is that of the man who wishes to know how and 
why gasoline generates power and something about the various 
types. Describes in detail the difi"erent parts of motors and the 
faults to which they are liable. Also gives full directions as to re- 
pair and upkeep. Various chapters deal with Types of Motors — 
Valves — Bearings — Ignition — Carburetors — Lubrication — Fuel — 
Two Cycle Motors, 



27. ICE BOATING, by H. L Stone, niustrated with 
diagrams. Here have been brought together all the available in- 
formation on the organization and history of ice-boating, the build- 
ing of the various types of ice yachts, from the small 15 footer to 
the 600-foot racer, together with detailed plans and specifications. 
Full information is also given to meet the needs of those who wish 
to be able to build and sail their own boats but are handicapped by 
the lack of proper knowledge as to just the points described in this 
volume. 

28. MODERN GOLF, by Harold H. Hilton. Mr. 

Hilton is the only man who has ever held the amateur champion- 
ship of Great Britain and the United States in the same year. In 
addition to this, he has, for years, been recognized as one of the 
most intelligent, steady players of the game in England. This book 
is a product of his advanced thought and experience and gives the 
reader sound advice, not so much on the mere swinging of the clubs 
as in the actual playing of the game, with all the factors that enter 
into it. He discusses the use of wooden clubs, the choice of clubs, 
the art of approaching, toiu-nament play as a distinct thing in itself, 
and kindred subjects. 

29. INTENSIVE FARMING, by L. C. Corbett. 

A discussion of the meaning, method and value of intensive methods 
in agriculture. This book is designed for the convenience of prac- 
tical farmers who find themselves under the necessity of making a 
living out of high-priced land. 

30. PRACTICAL DOG BREEDING, by Williams 

Haynes. This is a companion volume to PRACTICAL DOG 
KEEPING, described below. It goes at length into the funda- 
mental questions of breeding, such as selection of types on both 
sides, the perpetuation of desirable, and the elimination of undesir- 
able, quaUties, the value of prepotency in building up a desired 
breed, etc. The arguments are illustrated with instances of what 
has been accomplished, both good and bad, in the case of well- 
known breeds. 

31. PRACTICAL DOG KEEPING, by Williams 

Haynes. Mr. Haynes is well known to the readers of the OUTING 
HANDBOOKS as the author of books on the terriers. His new 
book is somewhat more aml)itious in that it carries him into the 
general field of selection of breeds, the buying and selling of dogs, 
the care of dogs in kennels, handling in bench shows and field trials, 
and at considerable length into such subjects as food and feeding, 
exercise and grooming, disease, etc. 




32. PRACTICAL TREE PLANTING, by C. R. 

Pettis. The author, who is the New York State Forester, takes up 
the general subject of reforesting, covering nature's method and the 
practical methods of broadcast seed-sowing, seed spot planting, 
nursery practice, etc. The various species are described and their 
adaptability to varying conditions indicated. Results of reforesting 
are shown and instructions are given for the planting of wind- 
breaks and shade trees. 

33. GUNSMITHING FOR THE AMATEUR, by 

Edward C. Crossman. Mr. Grossman, who is one of the best- 
known rifle experts in the country, takes up in detail the care and 
repair of the gun. He discusses such questions as The Present 
Development of the Gun — Tools for the Amateur — Rifle Barrels — 
Smooth Bore Barrels — Rifle Actions — Pistol and Gun Actions — Re- 
finishing and Processing — The Stock, Sights and Aids to Accuracy. 

34. 



A. Himmelwright. 



PISTOL AND REVOLVER SHOOTING, by A. L. 

A new and revised edition of a work that has 
already achieved prominence as an accepted authority on the use of 
the hand gun. Full instructions are given in the use of both revolver 
and target pistol, including shooting position, grip, position of arm, etc. 
The book is thoroughly illustrated with diagrams and photographs 
and includes the rules of the United States Revolver Association 
and a list of the records made both here and abroad. 

35. PIGEON RAISING, by Alice MacLeod. This 

is a book for both fancier and market breeder. Full descriptions 
are given of the construction of houses, the care of the birds, pre- 
paration for market, and shipment. Descriptions of the various 
breeds with their markings and characteristics are given. Illustrated 
with photographs and diagrams. 

36. INSECTS ON THE FARM, by E. P. Felt. 

A practical manual by the New York State Entomologist. He 
classifies insects — good and bad — according to crops and gives direc- 
tions for the eradication of the harmful and the encouragement of 
the desirable. Full descriptions are given of the principal varieties. 



37. MARINE GAS ENGINEERING, by A. L. 

Urennan, Jr. This is a practical manual written from the stand- 
point of a teaching engineer. All the details of marine gas engine 
constrnction and operation are described, step by step, with explan- 
atory diagrams. All technical terms and appliances are fully defined 
and the latest developments and refinements are traced and described. 
It is a book for the man who wants to understand and operate his 
own engine. 

38. THE RUNNING HOUND, by Roger Williams. 

This includes the greyhound and all the deer and staghounds that 
run by sight alone. The origin of the various breeds is traced and 
and striking individuals in each clasps are described. Instructions 
are given for breeding, care and training for field and show purposes. 
Illustrated with photographs of types. 

39. SALT WATER GAME FISHING, by Charles 

r . Holder. Mr. Holder covers the whole field of his eubject 
devoting a chapter each to such fish as the tuna, the tarpon, amber- 
jack, the sail fish, the yellow-tail, the king fish, the barracuda, the 
sea bass and the small game fislies of Florida, Porto Rico, the Pacific 
Coast, Hawaii, and the Philippines. The habits and habitats of the 
fish are described, together with the methods and tackle for taking 
them. The book concludes with an account of the development 
and rules of the American Sea Angling Clubs. Illustrated. 

40. WINTER CAMPING, by Warwick S. Carpenter. 

A book that meets the increasing interest in outdoor life in the cold 
weather. Mr. Carpenter discusses such subjects as shelter equipment, 
clothing, food, snowshoeing, skiing, and winter hunting, wild life in 
winter woods, care of frost bite, etc. It is based on much actual ex- 
perience in winter camping and is fully illustrated with working 
photographs. 

41. THE TRAILING HOUND, by Roger Williams. 

In this book General Williams takes up the hounds that run by scent, 
such as the foxhound, the bloodhound, and the beagle. He gives 
full instructions for care in the kennels, feeding, treatment of disease, 
breeding, etc., and follows it up with directions for training for field 
and show purposes. Illustrated with photographs of the various 
types which are fully described in the text. 

42. BOAT AND CANOE BUILDING, by Victor 

Slocum. AH of us like to think we could build a boat if we had 
to. Mr. Slocum tells us how to do it. Designs are given for the 
various types of canoes as well as full descriptions for preparing the 
material and putting it together. Small dories and lapstreak boats 
arc also included. 



43. BASS AND BASS FISHING, by James A. 
Henshall. Mr, Henshall has made a special study of the basses 
in all parts of the United Slates, a work for which his connection 
with the Bureau of Fisheries has given him exceptional opportunities. 
He discusses the habits of the bass and the methods and tackle 
appropriate for its capture. He also gives in detail the latest facts 
in regard to the artificial culture and planting of this valuable 
game fish. 

44. BOXING, by D. C. Hutchison. Practical in- 
struction for men who wish to learn the first steps in the manly 
art. Mr. Hutchison writes from long personal experience as an 
amateur boxer and as a trainer of other amateurs. His instructions 
are accompanied with full diagrams showing the approved blows 
and guards. He also gives lull directions for training for condition 
without danger of going stale from overtraining. It is essentially a 
book for the amateur who boxes for sport and exercise. 

45. TENNIS TACTICS, by Raymond D. Little. 
Out of his store of experience as a successfiil tennis player, Mr. 
Little has written this practical guide for those who wish to know 
how real tennis is played. He tells the reader when and how to 
take the net, discusses the relative merits of the back-court and 
volleying game and how their proper balance may be achieved; 
analyzes and appraises the twist service, shows the fundamental 
necessities of successfrd doubles play. 

46. THE AUXILIARY YACHT, by H. L. Stone. 

Combines information on the installation of power in a boat that 
was not designed especially for it with the features desirable in de- 
signing a boat for this double use. Deals with the peculiar proper- 
ties of the auxiliary, its advantages and disadvantages, the handling 
of the boat under sail and power, etc. Does not go into detail on 
engine construction but gives the approximate power needed for 
different boats and the calculations necessary to find this figure. 

47. TAXIDERMY, by Leon L. Pray. lUustrated with 

diagrams. Being a practical taxidermist, the author at once goes into 
the question of selection of tools and materials for the various stages 
of skinning, 8tu£Bng and mounting. The subjects whose handling 
is described are, for the most part, the every-day ones, such as 
ordinary birds, small mammals, etc., although adequate instructions 
are included for mounting big game specimens, as well as the pre- 
liminary care of skins in hot climates. Full diagrams accompany 
the text. 



OCT 4 m 



